Rocked

 

 

Rocked

 

like a thief in the night

in the day      in the midafternoon

you did not see 

what you did

that took away so much

of my joy in life

 

made me have to roll

huge boulders up and up

and up that hill     only to let it race

down hill      my squinched

eyes forever seeing you

for what I wished you were

but were not

 

i was a child     wandering

looking for substitutes for jewels

pockets full of regular rocks

clanging in my mother’s clothes washer

rocks in the soles of my shoes

chiding and scoldings planted in my bones

 

so when I was not rolling uphill

I gathered downhill     forever knowing

big rocks can be carried

when they are small

 

©Carol Desjarlais 5.12.23