so Bill
I was just wondering
when will you be done
taking your photographs
you were never this long
in the roll of film days
when you had a couple dozen shots
but now there’s no stopping you
my mother had always been
just wondering
patiently sat filing her nails
flicking through glossy magazines
Harpers and Queen
Vanity Fair
the breathtaking scenery
had never interested her
we’d drive out each weekend
take the Oldsmobile panting up
The Skyline Drive or
Blue Ridge Highway
there were swallowtails
and black bears
if you knew just where to look
and point your toy pistols
mother watched
from the passenger seat
window wound down
breeze blowing her mini beehive
the ten most alluring women
in the world
she would read out loud and
how to marry a billionaire Bill
poor father was a delivery man
never an ambitious bone
in his weary body
the long hours delivering parcels
exacted a price on his arthritis
but you would not hear him complain
just a few more minutes honey
he would quietly say
all those Kodachrome slides
he never showed or looked at them
they sat boxed
gathering dust
like his simple thoughts
over time he feared he would one day lose
our sunny days wandering Big Meadows
with mother in the car wondering
the names of our favorite places
still sing in my ears
they echo out from overlooks
call me back each year
to Riprap Trail
Hawksbill Gap
Elkwallow and
Bacon Hollow
now I am the keeper of his thoughts
unlocked and free to wander
projected overhead
we watch them on the big screen
there’s me I point
pistols at the ready
and mom smiling and waving
a cripple with withered legs
(apologies for posting this poem twice on the Daily Post one word prompt slot. My other blog is winding down now that I am coming to the end of my travels and I inadvertently added this to that although it does have relevance there too. Managing multiple WordPress blogs from a smartphone is not always without its glitches)
