SpringTime.

Winter's gradually giving in,
still straining to chill, fighting for time,
with gasps of raindrops and wind.
But Spring will win, any day...
Better
Be
Soon.

April is Here.

Thankfully, we got a dose of sun.
A visit to Ca. softened our shoulders,
loosened our stride.
Lily got to see her Grandpa,
over eighty years between the two...
So much love I feel between them,
and yet
the
guilt
I
feel
to have someone
that she
does
not.
It is a
kind of
connection
she can't know -
but still searches for,
hopeful
she
might.

The other night she slipped me a note,
her newest mode of communication.
I am glad she is able to find other homes
for her words.
I know that need,
the urge
to put them
somewhere
else.

I love you Daddy.  I love you to the moon and back.
You make everyday better.

She is big on note writing these days.
I now have a considerable
Apology Series,
always delivered surreptitiously -
little
white
flags
announced by the rustle-fuss underneath my door.
Like dollars for a vending machine, uncreased then flattened
just-right-enough,
coaxed through to my side.
Eyes waiting to see them pulled within.

But she enjoyed our family visit.
Fed the carp, played at the beach.
Reconnected with her California Best
in teacups, over boat ride plunges and Small World wonderment,
Hi Madeleine!! she yelled over her shoulder
craning to see ahead as she
wove drove our auto on a Disney stretch -
invisible trailing scarf, cap and goggles donned.
Then we all relished in desert dry and a Palm Springs pool,
sunny days and windy nights,
topped off by a hotel ruled by blunt bangs and tatooed cool.
This is a Ricky Ricardo room, mama,
alluding to the tropical feel.
Sure, I said.

She had a point.
Usually does.
Most always punctuated by Basically and Seriously?

Finally home to NYC,
just in time
for her
first
tooth
loss.
Excitement beyond adventure, sugar or friends.
Even trumped the back-to-winter-blues..
Aged a few years by her new-tooth-gap.
Her Parking Space, I call it.

But even the Space has a new one poking through.

New shoot heralding Spring.