SONGS OF THE DAY

1.

Famished and bundled under blankets

my mother after a grueling cardiac stress test 

drank her butternut squash soup from a paper cup 

through a straw. She finished it in record time.

The sound of her slurping was a strange music 

I did not expect to hear in a hospital room

from a woman who taught me etiquette:

how to silently and slowly sip.

2.

rest in the moment,

get outside and

look at living things,

the wind blowing

leaves is good, 

the invisible visible.

These timely words

from a friend

flew into me  

like birdsong 

and alighted on the branches

of my soughing soul.