A Woman of a Certain Age

 A Woman of a Certain Age

 

I am a woman of a certain age.

When I rise each morning,

I am glad to look out at our meadow

brightened by a new day’s arrival.

 

When I rise each morning,

before my thoughts take full shape,

(brightened by a new day’s arrival),

there is no time yet for rage or sadness.

 

Before my thoughts take full shape,

I remember times of innocence.

There is no time yet for rage or sadness.

I have not even heard the news.

 

I remember times of innocence

when we believed in kindness.

I have not even heard the news,

the moment frozen like a photograph

 

when we believed in kindness.

Recalling days we placed flowers in gun barrels,

the moment frozen like a photograph,

I have no desire for radio static.

  

Mary K. O’Melveny, a recently retired labor rights attorney, lives in Washington DC and Woodstock NY.  Mary’s poetry has appeared in journals such as Allegro Poetry Magazine, GFT Press, The Flagler Review, The Write Place At The Write Time, The Offbeat and Into the Void, and blog sites such as “Writing in a Woman’s Voice” and “Women at Woodstock.  Mary’s poem “Cease Fire” won the 2017 Raynes Poetry Competition sponsored by Jewish Currents Magazine and appears in the anthology “Borders and Boundaries” (Blue Threads Press 2017).