Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/the-arts/verse/)
As a child, my family only went to the doctor when we were really ill. For financial reasons, most common problems were treated at home — for a sore throat, gargling with salt and water; for sprains, soaking in warm water and Epsom salt; for colds and coughs, Vicks VapoRub, honey, and cough syrup from the drug store (sometimes prescribed by the doctor); for cuts and scrapes, peroxide.
When I was a little girl, I knew it was spring when I no longer had to wear my snow pants and red rubber boots or brown rubbers. It felt glorious! Soon, I knew, I would see the robins returning.
I think back in my memories to my first Christmas as a wife and young mother. Our income was just above the poverty level (by ten dollars), but we were blessed by the church with a big turkey with all the trimmings, and a basket full of canned goods and basic staples to last quite a while.
The fields were harvested. The pumpkin pies have been baked, and in the oven, the turkey roasts to a crisp, golden brown.
Too soon the summer has left us —
In the gardens, the flowers have produced their seeds.
It came so suddenly—the closing of colleges, schools, houses of worship, and libraries, hairdressers and bank lobbies. Everything that was a normal part of daily living was no more.
As we are growing up, our fathers teach us many things and give us the love of their hearts. On Father’s Day we remember them and thank them for all the ways they have made us who we are today.
Looking like the heads of lollipop sticks, or puffs of dandelion fluff, the tops of the tall trees reach
