"The sand box now is empTy
The toys resT on the shelF
The house is almosT silenT
As I siT here by my selF.
Maybe I Should build a casTLe
Or brush thaT old dolls hair
And painT The rusTed swing seT
To leT them Know I care,
For they helped me raise my
Children
to Face the challenges oF life
Where building, climbing, nurTuring
Will carry. them Through sTrife"
©1987JMF
Nov 16, 2025
Nov 16, 2025 at 3:15 PM UTC
"The sand box now is empTy
The toys resT on the shelF
The house is almosT silenT
As I siT here by my selF.
Maybe I Should build a casTLe
Or brush thaT old dolls hair
And painT The rusTed swing seT
To leT them Know I care,
For they helped me raise my
Children
to Face the challenges oF life
Where building, climbing, nurTuring
Will carry. them Through sTrife"
©1987JMF
My Gramma has, recently, passed, so I am honoring her by “publishing her [‘shy’] words”. The usage of capitals, though, most likely, not intentional, but I am going by Gramma’s handwriting, and I had just wanted to make the poem as authentic as possible. My Gramma, also, used to “memorize poetry for fun”. She’d known “The Greats”, and she could whip up a cadence out of nowhere. Quite amazing, actually. She was an amazing woman. […But, she deserves a better adjective: She was whip-smart.] After her 90th Birthday—"The Big NO", as she’d called it, she had said that I make her “feel like royalty". I had given her a tiara, on that day, and the present that she had given to me, after that day, was for her to tell me that very thing. Love you lots, Gramma. This “publication” is a present, from me to you.
