….
Mother’s Day, Doorbell
….
My usual protest well
rehearsed why didn’t you
buy them at Safeway,
…
deliver them yourself,
more sincere. And a kinder
version, though less
…
sincere thank you
for the flowers. Which
would emerge from my
…
mouth I couldn’t be
assured. But instead
it’s Buddha at the door
…
seated in lotus pose
smack in the center
of the bristled mat
…
right on the big S.
Thus disarmed I plant
a most sincere kiss
..
on my foolish husband’s lips
and place the serene one
in the shade of a young
..
hibiscus not yet in bloom.
Tiny grains of nursery soil
rest in his upturned hands,
..
his nondescript stone
substance surprisingly
soft, already eroding.
..
This poem is from the chapbook Valentine’s Dinner at Wren & Wolf (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/valentines-dinner-at-wren-wolf-by-mary-specker-stone/
..
Valentine’s Dinner at Wren & Wolf is a story of love: naïve and stubborn, stumbling, unforgiving, passionate, and, at times, disconsolate. Maddening love between neurodiverse partners who long to understand one another. Frayed love between divorced spouses trying to raise children amicably. Parental love, where generational wounds threaten to become dams that block life’s fluid possibilities. Self-love is here, too, the spiritual labors of aligning heart and mind. And, love for the feverish world. Valentine’s Dinner at Wren & Wolf is an off-road sojourn through landscapes and moments in one woman’s life as she learns what love has to teach her.
Mary Specker Stone’s poems have appeared in Image Journal; The Healing Art of Writing, Vol.1; New Verse News; Gyroscope Review, and other journals. Her scholarly writing, focused on communication dynamics between patients and health care providers, was published in Technical Communications Quarterly and the American Medical Writers Association Journal. After an early career as a biomedical writer, Mary studied rhetoric and composition, earning her M.A. in English from Northern Arizona University. While teaching college English, Mary developed an interest in poetry, and more recently, in the way poetry contributes texture and depth to spiritual life. She’s a certified Spiritual Director who leads poetry salons and serves writers, artists, and people in recovery. Mary lives in the greater Phoenix area.
The Paddock Review 