Poetry

A jam jar day

Savouring fresh made jam
on toast
with just brewed dark roast
on the deck
while swallows swoop
to the nest
it's too late to knock down
I hear the
"Cheep! Cheep!"
as barely born birds
fight for their fill
and remember

                                   fly

                              to

       wanted 

 I                     

                            

- Heather Leask Armstrong

A new wish

Lick the salt from your lips.

Rub your eyes dry.

Smooth your dress over your hips.

Don’t ask yourself why

it’s gone on so long.

Pack a suitcase of stuff

that doesn’t mean anything.

A one way ticket’s enough

to get beyond everything.

Go out to the coast

find a cheap, artsy apartment

write enough to eat toast

and hope the department

stores have a sale on.

You’ll be all right

You always are

You’ll be all right

                                                again.

Look for a shooting star

-        Heather Leask Armstrong

Upon meeting an old friend

We walk on eggshells with our words,
each not wanting to be the one who breaks
the measured, calculated thread of thoughts
that we have masked as casual conversation.

Little pebble pieces of our lives are polished
and offered up as gems of insight and knowledge
to show we have somehow grown up.

And what happened before, although charming
in a looking back at your life kind of way,
doesn't really matter now.

But with this first new meeting,
and, for a time, for those that follow
every kind and unkind word we spoke so long ago
thrills and hurts us once again.

Until one day, we are no longer old friends.

But new.

- Heather Leask Armstrong