Long before it belonged to me, it served
my grandparents and their batch of five,
and later my parents and their five would visit, 
eat rye bread with hard butter, sweet pickles
while gathered around this table, 
where in the morning I was given a bowl of Life.  

It was gifted to me with the stain faded,
so to give it a new life, I painted over it with white
where elbows leaned, hands folded.
Lessons on subtracting, decoding meaning,
and haircuts were given along with advice.
It became a fort, a place battles were fought,
a surface to let batches of cookies cool, as well as hearts,
where spills were wiped up, forgiven,
where we gave thanks, had dinners for four
then just two.
                        

They’re loud, awkward, dark, too heavy 
for the tips of the mulberries branches that bend
when they gather, first two, then three, then more. 
Their monstrous shadows and raucous banter disturb the silence. 
So different from the cheery goldfinches, sparrows
with their small talk, tiny nibbles. 
 
Stay awhile, the sign on my front door declares. 
I long for your visit. You’re safe to show up as you are. 
We’ll laugh out loud, eat large, be full
of chatter about what really matters, 
pardoning our every fall from grace. 
                        

The classmates who gathered at the cabin laughed 
about the chipmunks getting inside, depositing acorns in shoes
and among the blankets in the closet. 
We too left bits of ourselves in that space. 

We dropped our sufferings and sorrows out on the counter,
but in between we filled our bellies with laughter. 
Our worries, insecurities mingled with our new-found strengths. 
Hungry, we ransacked each other for treasures, pleasures,
foraged each other for wisdom, morsels of truth. 
We fed and drank in our share of each other. 
We swallowed our contentment to dig in and stay put
with the lives we had made for ourselves 
alongside our longings to venture beyond the familiar.  
We discovered we had newfound beliefs, passions,
split hairs over politics and religion. 
We had simplified, downsized, expanded. 
Our hearts had been broken, opened. We all had hopes. 
We were the same, we were different, 
but we were all praying the same prayer.