Maxine Fickenscher
Poem: Your Death Will Sit Through Many Empty Heartbeats
Poem: Just Right
Poem: I Love You
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Your Death Will Sit Through Many Empty Heartbeats
Through those soundless lonely moments six feet under there will be
Wailing new life brought to this world
A forced smile hiding a deeper sadness
In this world while you are gone there will be
Hugs and safety
The feeling of home
With warm pillows and hands reaching out to be held
and all things good have their time
But in your absence from this world there will also be
Fear and hopelessness
The feeling of drowning in the vast undiscovered ocean
So while you can grow the beautiful flower fields of hope and joy
Be the band-aid that helps heal the soul
The soul is permanent this life is temporary
Just Right
My mom’s famous sliders
They’re loved by all in town
Made most when the weather is cool and the leaves are falling
To when graduation comes around
The warmth they contain fills the room
With bread as soft as a cloud
And ham and cheese as smooth as silk
They smell like home
Like happy times and joy
Like running around the kitchen carefully as not to anger mom
Or bickering lovingly like a family should
As long as she’s able to cook sliders will always be an option on the menu
She teaches me how to make them her way
The right way
Saying things like
Don’t add too much butter otherwise they’ll be soggy
While I had the butter and sauteed onion mixture
I put the heavenly sliders into the oven to cook
Hoping I don’t smell smoke
Like what I smell when my big brother cooks as he insist
But burnt food just smells good, and it’s crunchy too
As he runs out of the house with the smoke alarm
Once they come out of the oven angels sing in the heavens
Bright smiles spread on happy faces
As an army of hungry humans devour the sliders in no time flat
While stories are told and laughs are shared
Memories are made and family bonds formed
And food once again helps the world go round
I Love You
to the moon and back
more than the moon loves the sky
more than I love the moon
to the constellations and back
to the five moons of Pluto and back
through the depths of space and time
more than the millions of earths that would fit in the sun
to the blue sunsets of mars and back
in all of the two trillion known galaxies
for all of the sixteen hours that make up a day on Neptune
to the heights of Olympus Mons and back
enough to break the absolute silence in space
enough to take eighteen years to walk to the moon and back.
My love for you is unceasing and will never disappear
like a footprint on the moon.
-For my little sister and her love for the moon