Something for Remembering

Nursing homes know
arts and crafts
become valued visitors
some with smiles
some with hooded foreshadow

How tenuous
how earnest
mixed genders
sitting in circles
anxiously hooking
thick wool string
tendrils of perpetuity
threading dreams
shawls of protection
scarfs of statement
booties of tomorrow

crocheting eternity

Trees of life
now but withered branches
shedding leaves of time
by twig-like fingers
punctuating yesterday
with every hole by hole entry
every stitch by stitch attachment
allowing Age's changing colors
to float blithely
earthward
and beyond

Like observant wings on high
we can but gaze down upon
Time's swirling visions in slow motion
a vortex permitting but a glimpse
of our yet-to-come reality

For now

We ride the draft
peering safely from afar
as seasoned providence
weaves lessons into
what is still to come

Something long
Something wide
Something for remembering