Sharon Auberle Verse-Virtual 2018 March

March 2018

I have been writing poetry since the dark ages of high school, and am currently honored and humbled to be chosen as Poet Laureate of Door County, Wisconsin for two years. I'm a lucky woman who gets to live in this beautiful land of Great Lakes and snow. Current occupation, other than that, is the gathering of much wool, which is necessary in these north woods. For ten years worth of poems and images, see my old website: Mimi's Golightly Cafe, at sharonauberle.blogspot.com which is currently on hiatus.

GRANDMOTHER'S PRAYERS

Last quarter of the moon tonight,
Feast of All Saints, pale light
falling on leaves whirling past my window.
Bittersweet days begin to play backward
until I'm eight years old again —
tangled hair streaming down my back,
tonight pig-tailed and proper
for evening Mass.

I should be praying, instead
I'm reeling with music, incense,
angels, Grandmother's fur coat,
perfect for stroking, until my caressing hand
brings her eyes down to me,
and she begins to pray
for all my yet-to-be-sins,
her rosary circling words up
through the vaulted roof,
while the soft, black hairs of her coat
stand electric beneath my hand,
like young and untamed beasts.

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