Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Josie--By Jean Calkins--United States

Josie

     My thoughts return to one real childhood friend
     and wonder where life’s road has taken her.
     I tried to keep in touch, from time to time,
     but she was not a writer; frequent moves
     unraveled every cord we had attached.
     I know she is not far from her home base,
     while I am many hundred miles away.
     My fading memory does not recall
     her married name.  Her brothers all have moved;
     her sister’s married name is also gone.
     No family remains to offer clue.
     All I have left is memories of times
     I stayed with her throughout the lightning storms
     she feared, that fascinated me so much.
     We were the “Mutt and Jeff” of our school crowd,
     she short and fair, I the tall, gawky one,
     and for a time, we knew a special bond
     that even silent years cannot deny.

Jean, at 82, has been writing poems since she was 18. For 25 years she published a popular poetry quarterly of up to 100 pages, with a subscribership of nearly 500. Illness in 1986 ended the magazine. She currently publishes, by email, a 2-page monthly of clean humor. Contact her at joker31277@yahoo.com

4 comments:

  1. I especially enjoyed this poem as I too had a special friend named Josie. She had Alzheimers and gradually after she moved with a son and daughter-in-law we couldn't find her. Even this year, I tried again to find her. She will be with me always. Like your Josie. Thank you, Jean, for your poem.

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  2. this is quite heartfelt, what an amazing thing it is to have friends that last in memory in pleasant ways and the love only keeps growing for them! sweet and lovely poem.

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  3. Touching and enduring. Nice poem, Jean. Thank you for sharing it and continued blessings!

    -MJ (www.tgbtgpublictions.com)

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