Page 19 - HEF Pen & Ink 2020

WHITE LILIES FLOAT ON THE
WATER
by Andrea Stalnaker
HIDDEN GEM
by Grace Burton
At the shelter, I did spy
A tiny kitten with a glint in her eye.
A panda coat, a stare intense
But with a name that made no sense.
“Cloudy.” No, she was too bright.
Like the sun, but with whiskers white.
Then she trumpeted, “MEOW!”
And the other cats seemed to bow.
It was a command, meant for me,
To give her a proper name. A royal decree.
And if her name fit in this poem,
She would allow me to take her home.
So I thought for a while
And my heart began to smile.
“Diamond,” I announced, and I swear she nodded And off to her new home she trotted.
BROOKLYN BRIDGE
by Mara Flynn
White lilies float on the water.
They float on glaze water,
Moving with a slow grace.
White lilies float for the women in their Sunday dresses.
For the men in their copper button coats. For children in church white best.
White lillies lay on deathbeds.
They call upon death in its waking hour.
It floats on black caskets against its heavenly colored petals.
Death knows theses flowers,
They’re elegant mask hides the decaying face.
The rotting flesh of ones once loved are closed shut in a finely decorative box,
Locked in place and lowered into the ground,
Then covered with earth with death’s bouquet on top.
White lilies are hung in a vase.
Parlor rooms have painted glass bottles on the walls and ceilings.
Over a marble mantle are Easter lilies for holy decor. Father smokes out of his wooden pipe
While mother sews a pattern on her layered quilt. And their child plays on the floor with his metal train set.
White lilies stay still in the frame.
White lilies float in the waters of the mind.
The dreams, thoughts and imagination of mankind. White lilies come when birth, life and death follow.
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