Thirteen Ways Middle Age

 The Poetry Pals are writing thirteen ways. I'm joining in.

Thirteen Ways Middle Age

moonbeam webs stray at my temples sleep escapes my nights

what doesn’t seem long ago, was…not on my phone yellowed paper files

what’s old music is new again – hey Mom listen to this, Pink Floyd!

I cannot hear of war without heartsickness children shouldn't die

my grandmothers smile at me from mirrors playing peak-a-boo 

some plans have been made burial plot purchased with my ancestors

half full not empty  by half

without rhyme, poetry has now become my first language

with pen, I hand-write letters on paper just to be old-fashioned

cursive writing is my secret code–especially F, G, Q, and S 

god has not changed, yet i see what’s sacred in more and more every day

children now look

after me making sure

mother is safe

it takes longer to scroll to the year of my birth the summer of love

Linda Mitchell -- draft


Don't miss any of the Poetry Friday round-up hosted this week by Incredible Irene Latham at Live Your Poem who is introducing her brand new anthology, The Mistakes That Made Us. Confessions from Twenty Poets, selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illus. by Merce Lopez (Carolrhoda/Lerner Publishing. 10/1/24).