Want to Put Your Head in My Bucket?

Want to put your head in my bucket, Oma?

Nope.

Because you're old?

Yup.

Will you always be old?

Yup.

Do you want to be old?

Nope.

Then put your head in my bucket!

Not only Human, Not Only Earth (Published Spring 2013, www.hippocketpress.org/canary

This giant redwood tree we stumbled on

is old, so old it was a sapling when

Rome fell and Aztec still was spoken

in these woods

where we stood, my friend

and I, staring skyward,

she in quiet prayer and I musing

whether life's sundry forms 

prove it must be sprouting out there 

in countless starry gulches 

of the Milky Way and far beyond

in ways an earthly brain can’t fathom.

We know Earth shimmers with a beauty 

that’s finely tuned to human sensibility, 

but not only human, and surely 

not only Earth

 Copyright (c) 2012 Ellen McCarthy. All rights reserved.

The Connor Boy

He wasn't four long


before this bench


overlooking the lake


was dedicated in


loving memory


with a copper plaque


that won't last either.



We have to let go of everything.

 Copyright (c) 2012 Ellen McCarthy. All rights reserved.

Our Lucky Dogs

What she hears, she just hears.

What she smells, she just smells.

Knowing only this moment,

only simple things --

pain but not evil,

joy but not conceit.

Being without effort.

In one world at a time.

In this world, not a past,

not a future,

not another,

not the next.



 Copyright (c) 2012 Ellen McCarthy. All rights reserved.

Funeral Hymn

Don’t sing to yourselves, my loves,

turn your eyes, your lips

to me, to my sleeping ears,

to my still growing hair.

Sing to me in my grave,

where I still dream, 
still work my needles,
knitting our shadows
together.

So sing loud, 
sing often, my loves.

Wake me 
from this long sleep

if only in your hearts.

 Copyright (c) 2012 Ellen McCarthy. All rights reserved.

Lets stay together

The other grandma lay in hospice when

my grandson looks up at me.

I want us to always 

          stay together, Oma.

Me too, I say.

If I get eaten by a shark,
        I want you
to be eaten by a shark.

Me too, I say.




Copyright (c) 2012 Ellen McCarthy. All rights reserved.

Permanence

A breeze light as breath

warms my crouching child

shaping sand into symbols

of intelligence, unaware

an ocean’s frothy lips 

are parting at his heels

to lap up his careful
engineering.

Earth, sun and moon

so flaunt their might 

and mock our dream

for permanence.


Copyright (c) 2012 Ellen McCarthy. All rights reserved.