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Lori Jones McCaffery 2d

Every morning I kneel and pray
For the needs of other people.
But nobody prays for me.
Fourteen ways my body fails
And my mind is failing too.
Yet nobody prays for me.
My needs are on the bottom shelf
I carefully set it up that way.
So nobody prays for me.
I thought I was invincible
But my needs outweigh my strength.
Won’t somebody somewhere pray for me.

The Response:  By Mystic Rose

I see you on that bottom shelf
and wonder what made you think
that you belonged there, my child.
I watched you carry them all on your shoulders
those Columbuses of a war torn world *  
Yes you pray for them, but who prays for you ?
Know that I am the one who by the touch  
of my hand, can make you whole again.
As I brush your soul against mine,  
I set you higher than the Angels of heaven.   
I am that silent prayer in your heart
that invisible shield that protects you  
Just think of me  
and I'll be there beside you.   
"Bottom Shelf" ? no not there, go ahead take my hand,
I will pull you up close and personal, " Top Shelf"
that is where you belong.
Pebble in hand
on waters edge i stand
Memories of you wax and wane with
each wave that laps at my feet
i sink into the soft sand..
Tears on cheek
Smooth pebble and
jagged breathe
As i let you go again. again....again
This time I don't throw the pebble away
I drop it at my feet, and watch it tumble and turn as the waves draw it back into the ocean
I watch the colours gleam and the pebble swing this way and that like a dancer swaying to the music...
I watch this small beautiful thing be subsumed by the much larger beauty of the beach

And I stand tears running freely as I learn another lesson about grief about letting go about being together but apart..
And through my tears I laugh...
but about cat ladies,
with cats attached

who most like their
fel~ine femin~ine
mistresses, also
come in many colors,
categories, shapes ‘n
sizes

looking to adopt a
pair of cute kiddies,
with promises of
much stroking and
endless affection to
fill the void in my
currently, sadly, totally
animal~less existence

But!

we want a pair,
cat & cat lady,
for how a woman
treats her cat is
the single best
indicator of how

she loves to love
poets, who are
most like cats,
needy for exchanging
purrings and many
other endearing
sounds and belly
stroking, inclusive
of the frequent
recitations of
onlylovepoetry


(a tiny amount of
mutual scratching
is to be happily
expected as well)
40
,000 drafts of poems proposed,
some but a bit, a title, a bob,
some wondering why are they kept
in suspended animation, the fire of exiting
from placenta to screaming baby, most,
patient waiting, over the undivided divide,
the Cumbersome Attention Gap to cross,
to the state of hallelujah completion

this race should be an Olympic one,
it is unwinnable, but only open to poets
who willing to go the unlimited distance,
every finished oeuvre, spawns bornes two
more, so you, fool, even a fifth grader,
intuits the higher math of you’ll never
catchup, but rise invigorated to meet,
greet the wonderous sunrise challenge…

and the promised ones, “next one for you,”
the unconditional incompleyedy poems
so overdue, the muses send an armored truck
to collect just the largesse of fine fines…
as my old West Village friend sang, you poet,
“might as well try and catch the wind”

this leads me to observe a new day’s first
birthday, even as Leonard sings Yom Kippur
hymns of mortality, and all the ways humans
can pass thru the gap in the morn clouds that
is the passageway to the Higher North…

you see, this is this poems day of naissance,
one day, one candle, now extant, but sooner
to be a not, one more poem sent heavenward
after a  brilliant brief coexistence with the
innards of my mind…
People say that
Real men don’t cry
       Then why am crying?
   I never knew
    The true meaning
      Of a poem
     Until
      You
      Appeared
Fate is a neon-lit pinball machine
And I am a little steel ball
Dodging the "tilt" sign as best I can
                                           ljm
How many of you remember pinball machines
How many of you don't know what they are
Tougher for the bones
On the way down.
Humans are built for uphill
Maybe
DeShane took me mountain climbing today.  I was panting and groaning until we were done, and then, so grateful.  And I told him so, a lot.
Decked up elephants,
Sea of hands mark time for drums,
Splendour well defined!
Throughout,
She had been
Mostly fortunate
In the blessed surrounding
Of good people
She had been permanently damaged by a bad person
But found
Much to her surprise
The damage was not permanent
Though the layer she brought from it
Was uniquely her
To those lucky to see
She was not damaged
She was scarred
And scars grow back tougher than the original
And, in most cases, leave a beautiful reminder of the day God taught your *** a lesson
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