Parents and Memory

One of the kindest, most healing choices we can make in life is to see our parents, not in harsh light that sharpens every blemish, and retains every childhood grievance, but through the soft focus of empathy, tempered by time and healing - seeing them as they aspired to be – perhaps as the people they might have been at their very best.

When our parents are alive, this gift is for them, and our relationship with them.  After they have passed, the beneficiary is ourselves.

We who are parents ourselves are twice blessed for this loving choice.  As our children witness and learn from our example, they may deem us worthy of the same indulgence.

Flightless Wings

Flightless, 

yet their wings are highly prized, 
harvested by the millions
for an annual sacrament, 
celebrated in gatherings
throughout the land, 
in which the wings—
only these tiny, useless vestigial wings—
are eaten.

Inscrutably called ‘buffalo’, 
they are consumed voraciously
by the faithful, 

who believe that 
if they consume enough of them, 
and scream— 
support or obscenities—
at electronic images across the room, 
they can influence events 
thousands of miles away. 

And the chickens—

wingless now—
wander the coop, 

or perhaps cross the road
for no apparent reason; 
retaining only the faintest memories
of their elusive dreams of flight. 

- Michel-Jacques Villeneuve