The Last Daisy of Summer

Dear Happiness,
I think I saw you today.
Yes, I'm sure it was you.
You fluttered near the cage
I had prepared for you.
I briefly touched you,
And then the wind carried you
Just beyond my fingertips.

My old friend Happiness,
When I was young,
We walked side-by-side, you and I.
We explored the seashore,
Noticed sparkling pebbles in the tide pools,
Painted my nails for the first time,
And celebrated the last daisy of summer.

Do you remember?

I should know better than to chase you.
I just wish you would chase me.

© Judith C Evans 2014

Shared with Poets United Midweek Motif. This week's prompt is "happiness."

Ashes

Children,

I watch you learn the same paper crafts that I learned

Nearly seventy years ago.

I might have been your great grandmother,

Had history taken a different turn.

Fold the paper just right

And pray for me as you set the paper cranes

To flight.

Forever six years old,

I am in every sunbeam, cloud and snowflake

That falls over Hiroshima

As the ashes of my bones,

Caught up in the poison windstorm decades ago,

Look for a peaceful place to rest.

© Judith C Evans 2014 

Written for Poets United Midweek Motif prompt: "Hiroshima, or Ring a Bell"