The Very Thought of You

Poetry Prompt from dVerse Poets Pub “Poetics: InterActions.”  I chose to do Gretchen Leary’s music prompt.  Here goes.  (“The Very Thought of You by Billie Holiday, the first singer I fell in love with)

THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU

The rain is pattering on the overhang

black coffee in the air

the smell of paint from

my little kitchen I just painted

Emma is asleep in her crib upstairs

as Lady Day dips and drones

and flattens the back of my throat

as we sing

…the very thought of you…

it is July in my prime

I go outside, barefoot,

smelling the wet pavement

hissing off the avenue

and sneak into the neighbor’s

yard, near the alley

and pick as many lilacs

as I can carry, the water

dripping onto my face and hair

…Emma, my girl, I’m a mama…

….I see your face in every flower,

                          your eyes in stars above…

Back inside I take out

blue mason jars and old bottles

I’ve collected since high school

and fill them all, cluttering

windowsills, tables, the steps

swaying my hips

to the scaling piano

to the motion in my life

everything where it should be

everything right

...I’m livin’ in a kind of daydream…

        …I’m happy as a queen…

rain streaks the glass

I think of how I’ll tell her this

when she’s older–how her mama

was a spring of a girl, dancing

to muffled jazz, picking lilacs in the rain…

…and foolish though it may seem…

         …to me, that’s everything….