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Thursday, April 21, 2022

No Country for Old Women

 


Grotesque brutality and unfathomable
unkindness - how did our world arrive
at this place where cruelty and violence
abounds?

I am watching death and sorrow
on my tv screen.
I am seeing acts of hatred on the news -
humans harming other humans
in ways too horrible to name.

I remember meadows, and the smell of sage
and Ponderosa pine. I remember hollyhocks
in my Grandma's garden.
I remember peace on summer mornings
in the safest place I knew.

I remember when my dreams were certain
that all would turn out well.

This is no country for old women,
we grandmas who have achieved a peace
the young have yet to find. 
They seem so unforgiving.
They throw words around like shrapnel
that lies embedded in the heart.

This is no country for old women.
I retreat into my shores of peace.
I remember meadows, the smell of sage
and Ponderosa pine. I remember hollyhocks
in my Grandma's garden,
peace on summer mornings
in the safest place I knew.

I heard a journalist refer to putin's grotesque brutality and terror tactics. The phrase stayed with me. There is a lot of gratuitous unkindness around, even in places where there is no war. People seem on edge with all that is going wrong. They are extremely reactive. I retreat.


3 comments:

  1. Sometimes one does need to retreat into one's shores of peace....wherever they are. Indeed, think back at your grandma's garden, and find solace there!

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  2. What else can one do? I was piqued by some dweeb's hatespew on Twitter, apparently triggered by comments I posted on a sad US memorial hashtag page. The screen name and graphic suggested a full-time permanent resident of the Land of Self-Pity. What surprised and still perturbs me was that person claimed to be 38 years old. Person's tweets sound as if they came from someone 13 or under!

    Sad. Not my niece or nephew, thanks be. Back to reality I go, but I still find myself praying that this Twit, who did claim some sort of unspecified disability, can be helped in some unknown way.

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  3. This past week, I have found people especially jangly. The global consciousness seems very fraught right now, with good reason, I suppose. We try to stay steady.

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