The Shine Journal

clay 

she had been in a sienna mood  

on her knees in the garden when

she heard the rattle of the elements

and not needing further proof

she began to adjust her body                                                                                                                       

the vessel that had housed her children

was already tired and the final wrench

of her heart would be too much

no article on motherhood could have

prepared her for what was to come

scraped knees are one thing

but a bullet under her son’s thorax

the tale of his nervous laugh just before 

his final comment “good shot” as he fell 

to the ground and the filament of gold

that ran ~ between ~ them broke

the memories of their sing song days

of one two buckle my shoe cried

inside her not one but two of four

children were now on the other side

and this would be remembered

as the day she too began to leave 

the end of this street

spring has arrived!

i know this because the cherry trees are in bloom

creating luscious, pink archways through which to enter the end

of this street and the beginning of the next

very soon, sooner than we all think

row upon row of cherry blossoms

having completed their journey

will carpet the street in pink

on which to walk as if floating to the end

of this street and on to the next

one day, probably not today i will walk

through that archway or upon a carpet of pink

having walked a measured distance to the end

of this street and on to the next

BIO:

JONINA KIRTON has only recently discovered

poetry is indeed her passion. Blessed with a

watery nature, an interest in emotional  and

spiritual healing, her Metis/Icelandic heritage

has been an asset in her search to understand

the nature of duality  and the resilience of our

spirits. Although she  believes the  answers

we seek lie within, she also

knows that our time here is not a solitary

journey; that a good book or poem can crack us

open and take us further inside

than we ever could have gone alone.

Please visit her at www.joninakirton.com.

MOTIVATION:

clay:

This poem was submitted to the CV 2 day poetry contest –

they give you 10 words and 2 days to write a piece.

It is based on a true story about my mother's reaction

to my brothers death. I added my experience of getting

an intuition that he had died the same afternoon he

was killed. For simplicity sake in the poem

I made the intuition my mothers experience not mine.

The end of this street:

this is a celebration of just how delightful

I find the time of year when the cherry

trees blossom. To me it always feels like a

magical time of year as if you could enter

 another world by walking on the

blossoms. it ended up the other world

would be appear to be death.

Photo by: Gabriel Doyle