The skin in the folds
Of your eyes
Droops down lower
Than then
But when
Your eyes lock mine
There’s a quick’ning
Butterfly wings
In my chest
My breath
Must stop a moment
I knew you then
But when your chest
Was bare
No hair
Adam’s apple
Not yet thrust out
Undaunted
You wanted
To shave soft skin
Touch my soft skin
Butterfly wings
There then
Here when
You touch my hand
Skin wrinkled now
Eyes locked again.

I face a new decade. I face a new series of ages in which I start with a 6 in the tens’ place. When I think about the “oughts” I realized that between the year 2000 and now:
***I fell in love for the first time since Wayne died.
***I got married.
***I became a widow again.
***All three […]

Happy Birthday, Chippy. I toasted Caitlan and Kyle for the both of us a few nights ago. You would have liked the toast since it was about the reading Joe Palmiotto did at our wedding.

“The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown […]

No one could have given me three greater gifts. Thanks, Chippy.
[…]

Caitlan has let us know that she and Kyle arrived safely in Oxford. Thanks be to God. I hope they have a wonderful time during his visit there. Then she will be studying day and night for her final exams (I think they are called collections) before coming home on June 17th. I am so […]

I love you above all measure. Know that even though he has been gone 15 years, your dad loves you today as then, he prays for you daily, he watches over you in every way possible. I hope you prayed for and to him today. I hope you went to Mass and remembered him. If […]

Part Three (Many people let me know how they have learned lessons from things that have happened in my life. People have told me that after Wayne died, they realized how important a network of friends, family and church community support can be during a time of tragedy. I agree. When Joe died suddenly, […]

I never travel without my box.. . . I love “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” It was the first operetta written for television. By Menotti in 1951. I don’t remember seeing it then of course, but not that many years after. And every year after that for many years. John and I used to go […]

After our big day on Friday, I headed to Danville to stop by the art center and see John’s original watercolor for the Brass Band Festival poster. I had to purchase a poster for myself and have it signed. It is magnificent (portraits of various hornblowers)–reminded me of when Wayne and I first came to […]