Poetry

LIKE A GOOD WIFE SHOULD
by
Donna Blasor-Bernhardt


I knew it! I knew it!! It got cold after all!
The temperature nose-dived and started to fall.
At first it was forty...below zero, you know,
But that was just fine, the truck would still go

With the aid of a torch, as my spouse had explained.
So I got it to run and I never complained.
At fifty, the cold crept under the door;
I knew we were destined for temperatures lower.

Fifty-five...my spouse thought we might need more wood
So I sprinted outside and split all I could.
I was glad that I had, as I warmed my backside,
For keeping him warm was my number one pride.

At fifty the cold crept under the door,
But at sixty below, it rolled 'cross the floor.
Sixty-five...my man shuddered to think of a seat...
The one in the outhouse...the one with no heat.

So I dashed out ahead to do what I could
And pre-warm the seat...like any wife would?
At seventy, the grill fell out of the truck.
That wasn't unusual, it just seemed our luck.

Battery cables (arctic) shattered and broke,
But that's just a part of living in Tok.
At seventy-five, my husband complained.
He said he was cold and I was ashamed.

I gave him a blanket like any wife should,
Made him hot soup and went for more wood.
The cabin logs heaved and snapped with resound;
The kerosene thickened, as I soon found.

I filled up the lamps with kerosene slush,
Wondering it would burn, this oily-like mush.
At eighty below, yes, that's what we had,
Our battery froze, but I wasn't mad.

I brought it inside were it would thaw out;
Next to the woodstove, there wasn't a doubt.
When it's eighty below the cold cuts like a knife,
So I stoked up the fire like any good wife.

My husband said I'd done really quite fine.
I never complained, I never did whine.
He told me I'd taken such good care of him,
The next little cold snap, he'd "let me" again.

He'd "let me" warm up his icy, cold feet,
He'd "let me" take the chill off the outhouse seat.
He'd "let me" stoke the fire and bring in wood,
Warm him and feed him HE says...
like a good wife should!!

 

SOMEWHERE NEAR THE SHADOWS
by
Donna Blasor-Bernhardt


Somewhere in the recesses
Of memories I keep,
Somewhere near the shadows
Of night and dark and sleep,

Somewhere in those quiet moments
Where thoughts and dreams emerge,
In the gentle twilight of my being,
Present, past and future gently there converge.

It's here where time and space,
No longer straight and narrow,
Separated once by consciousness
Blend in body's marrow....

And in those mellow darkling moments
Where dream eclipses thought,
You come to me, embodied, whole....
Completeness therein brought.

With neither time nor space confining,
Death exists no more
And you are here...again with me
As we were before.

EASY OPEN
by
Donna Blasor-Bernhardt


I seem to make an awful mess
Of things which read "to open press."
I have an ever-growing fear
Of "for easy open just lift here."
And I never, ever get the knack
Of "pressing in" and "pulling back,"
"Line up arrows" or "lift the ring,"
"Press this corner" or "pull the string."
Almost always I'm in doubt
With "cut this line, pull out spout."
I find it near impossible
To "lift this flap" or "punch and pull,"
Trouble comes with "zip the strip..."
The bag I buy will always rip
(The contents, flowing from the tear
Cover my floor, everywhere!).
The phrase "to open, simply twist"
Turns me to contortionist,
And I'm convinced there's no such thing
As an "easy open" pop top ring.
They say it's simple...well, not for me...
(There's one more thing I hate to see)
Beneath the words just "press" or "pull"
Are these words..."RECLOSEABLE."
But once I've got the package open
There's nothing left...except disposing!

BORN IN YESTERDAY
by
Donna Blasor-Bernhardt


I wonder if we've loved before
In some other life--
Were you once my husband,
Was I, then, your wife?

Have you held me in your arms
Before we touched each other...
Have we been endeared forever,
Was there never another?

There's something so familiar
About the way we are;
Are we time-crossed lovers,
Souls spanning eons far?

Had we met and loved before
We met and loved today--
Is the present now our future
Born in yesterday?

Are we spirits of another star,
Scattered cosmic dust, supernal...
A timeless continuum
Bonded, infinitely eternal?

I know that I have known you...
Someplace...sometime before--
I loved you then as I do now;
I'll love you evermore.

You and I have found each other
In this lifetime, once again...
We can live and love once more
As we did back then,

Lifetimes past or lifetimes present,
Lifetimes future--it matters not, the paradigm
To souls of light and love eternal,
Defined, we're one in time.

We lived and loved before
We lived and loved today--
Our present, now our future,
Was born in yesterday.