"Snow-berry Pond" by Robin Loving (books to read for teens txt) 📖

“Snow-berry Pond”


Virgin skates touch frozen pond
Where dreams extend quite far beyond
The patchy gray and frozen fronds
Of shore-lines, ferny-grace.

Homespun woolens snagged and torn
Bottom wet, and knees quite worn
Her eight-year life was to begin that day
Spinning in the womb of this place.

Surrounded by great hawthorn trees
Thorns and berries, bereft of leaves
Hidden in this snuggly cove
Free to fall, without shame.

Newfound grace upon her gift
Of silver-white skates, a life adrift…
Great swirls and twirls and arms extended
Toward the gray-white sky.

She would be “The Queen of Skating”.
She would be the “Queen of It All”!
She would be “The Queen of Grace-lit Beauty”
Twirling, without a fall.
.
Her Brother Peter, was neatly hidden,
With his bright new, red-painted Santa-sled.
Santa was kind to both; that year
Perhaps he didn’t see what lay ahead?

Peter grabbed her white sleeve, and held on tight
Paddled, breathless and frozen, toward the light
His young-teeth clenched, as he paddled faster
Dragging Katherine, without a fight.

Peter died that fateful day.
Katherine went on to excel.
She never forgot her brother’s face
Beneath his frozen, timeless jail.

And as she lay in the ‘Old Folks” home…
Her cracked skates, just a remnant on the wall
She peers from the window, at the snow-covered trees
The berries, as they sway… bring an end to it all.

This tale extends, quite far beyond
What I’ve grown to know, as love and grace
A simple story of “Snow-berry Pond”
Also brings me face-to-face

With who I am, and whom I’ve loved
Who has left me through the years.
My ‘cracked-skates’ hanging on the wall
Will always bring my soul to tears.

Text: copyright 2010 Robin Loving All rights belong to Author
Publication Date: 08-17-2010

All Rights Reserved