Sweet Tea Rings on the Coffee Table (2006)
Sweet tea, lazy On an afternoon Wrapped in the comforting Embrace of the South. I read of desires For it was desire That brought me here, To my empty house In Dixie, the dream. I am exactly where they wanted, So they send their furniture here, To my home in the sun. The Canadian frosts melt away To reveal mom’s chair, Dad’s sofa, and a low, Worn coffee table. Old ideas in a home Of youthful desire, I Rest my sweating glass On the new old table, It leaves a watery ring On the faded wood, I Let it lie. Mom preferred coasters, Dad may not have minded. Hot air filters through the window, I dream of riverboats Like Dad once dreamed of this. My Thoughts Today: I remember this one well. It was an assignment for a college poetry class. The instructions were to set my alarm clock for 3am and write about whatever dream I was in the midst of. And this was my dream. That I was drinking sweet tea in a home that I had just moved into and some handmade Canadian furniture was being delivered (it was sent by my parents). What I concluded from the dream was that I was thinking about my past and future all at once and I was finding it a bit overwhelming. It's not unlike the way I'm thinking/feeling now. Life happens in seasons and cycles. Its funny how every month, every season conjures up feelings of that same time in previous years. I'm acknowledging that today and focusing on it. How comforting is it to know that after every fall comes a winter, and after every winter comes a spring, and so on? I know I wrote this poem based on a dream I had, a very eventful but pleasant dream. I am longing for a peaceful sleep like that now, as I spend my nighttime hours comforting my 5-month-old. I will try to keep in mind, as I rock her and rock her for what seems like forever, that after this night, morning is sure to come. |
Rachel Boury BaxterWriter: web content by day, fiction by night. Archives
October 2016
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