happiness

Calligraphy Girl

lillian5 Comments

Penciled eyebrows arched in surprise
bright red lips and stiletto heels
short white gloves like her mother wore
and always a billowing skirt,
crinolines attached for extra flounce.

She struts through life to decorate the scene
takes center stage to raucous applause.

Shoes come off, skirt removed
she twirls it above her head
three loops, then let sail
caught by the lucky wide-eyed man
sitting in a front row seat.

Each movement choreographed
her legs curve round the rope.

She ascends high and higher still
seeks the spotlight’s heat,
craves this life,
to dangle and curl
high above the circus floor.

Vector-Red-Lips

Life Long Delight

lillian4 Comments

He took to soap and water from an early age,
standing on a stool, sleeves rolled up
playing in the suds.

As a college chap,
he was a regular with his chums,
second stool from the left at Chauncey’s Pub.

Not in it for the guzzling,
he liked to watch the suds drip down his glass
and feel the foam against his upper lip.

Retired now, no children of his own,
he’s become a summer legend
in the neighborhood corner park.

Washtub at his feet,
nets of string on two long poles
he dips and waves, and dips again.

Magic billows out across the lawn
this man, doing what he loves
is now, and always has been
the bubbles man.

What Lies Beneath

lillian9 Comments

I’ve searched a lifetime for my soul mate.
I lie here on the ground, looking up, feeling down.
Rock edges poke through new mown grass
like questions nudging through my spine.

I start to ruminate, cogitate
mull over impossible possibilities.
This much I know, our world is round
and I exist right here, right now, on this orb.

If I could somehow push the earth
compress its latitudes,
would I find you, prone like me
somewhere, deep below?

Just a diameter away,
lying still, listening for my breath
through curves in our globe
searching too, looking for me?

Tap Into Life’s Lessons

lillian12 Comments


Magic shoes! Shiny black with big looped bows
slabs of silver metal screwed on soles.
Best gift ever, when I was oh so young.
And oh how I remember…..

NOISE.
PURE NOISE!!!
Swing a leg. Stomp, march, slap, clang!!
Body all feet. ALL SOUNDS.
EVEN WHen i tiptoed.
Add lessons, Tuesdays at ten.
To learn.
Teacher teaches,
directs, muzzles.
Shu-ffle, shu-ffle.
Shu- no, NO, NO!
SHHHH!!!
Like-this.
Con-trol the-swing,
shor-ter. NOT so big.
Shu-ffle, shu-ffle.
One-two, one-two.
Slow-down. Con-trol the-sound.
Com-press your-space.

And there I was, in the mirrored wall,
shrinking. Like putting reins on little feet.
Learning to be small
while growing big.
Learning to fit in.