Today would have been my Mom’s 92nd birthday.  She lived all of her almost 92 years and today I can’t help but spend some time thinking about her, missing her.

Birthday Gift

I’ll take time to grieve today
invite myself to linger
with memories…like the time
that waitress grabbed the muffins
right off our plates, so confused
by our request to ‘please heat
these dead-cold muffins’ she brought –
poor girl – but we’ve only ever laughed
about it, never complained, even then.

Or the time,
you went to a meeting wearing
two right footed high heeled sandals
because you woke from a dead sleep
right when your ride arrived.
You came home still laughing.
I loved to be with you
when you were laughing.

Today I’ll let
the pride you were filled with
spill over me – sink in,
as I remember all the times
you were there watching me
perform a song, sing a solo,
walk a graduation and birth
my children (now I understand better).
You never stopped telling me
how important I was in your life.

Today I’ll let
your birthday gift be this
to cheat death a little and extend
our time together.

© 2018 – Laurel Archer

Photo Credit:  Featured photo – Mom finally got to see Emma in January of this year after many years — and a selfie from a last run through Alberta before she moved to Victoria.  This is THE Smittie’s where the muffins were snatched from our plates.