Journey

I have holes in my shoes
not from age
but from walking and walking for so long
My clothes are tattered
My skin is red.
I am worn and gaunt
I feel like I won't reach my destination.
I cry for help
and I wait a long time
I look up and see people
concerned and awed at what they see.
They scramble around
trying to figure out how to revive me.
After some nourishment
and kind words
I slowly regain my strength
and I am on my way to try again.

Testimony

A chapel
like any other
furnished with benches, a piano and an organ
and a pulpit.

It was testimony meeting.
One by one people got up to express their feelings
about the gospel and their blessings.

This testimony meeting
a lady in a wheelchair
wheeled herself up to the front of the congregation
Her body was crooked and deformed.
She couldn't hold her head up and
had a hard time speaking.
She had cerebral palsy.
but when she spoke
we all understood.
She said, "I am so thankful for the gospel
and for my knowledge of the resurrection.
I know that when I am resurrected
I will have a perfect body
to live in forever.
I can't wait.

Dark

When I was a young girl
I tried to imagine my future.
All I could see was darkness.
I was afraid.
As I grew into that adulthood
Which I had wondered about,
I handled many situations

The darkness, a shadow
That incircled me
Like a disease, grew,
Until it surrounded me.
I was confused
Preoccupied with the talking and thoughts
In my head,
I didn't know if it was day or night.

As I try to imagine my life
In the hereafter,
I see the same darkness that
Frightened me when I was young,
Even though whenever I have come close
To going to the other side,
Either by illness or action,
I have experienced a peace
Greater than any peace
I have ever known before.

The Ranch

I had been dating Don for a couple of months when he told me that he told me that he came from a polygamist family.  He didn't expect me to keep going out with him, neither did I.  I stopped seeing him for about a month, but I missed him and was terribly lonely, so  I went to see him.  We started dating again.

He was a mechanic and never showered after a greasy days work.  He had shortcomings, but I still liked him.
He had four siblings.  His mother was married to a polygamist.
The kids were always talking about the ranch.  They said it was a hundred years old.  They liked going there.  I imagined a large house on a piece of land with horses and other animals.

The family was going there to do some dear hunting.  Don asked me to go.  We drove for hours on the desert.  It seemed like hundreds of mile, far away from everything escept sage brush.  We came to  an old adobe shack.  This was the ranch.  There was no electricity or running water.

When night came, the darkness was thick.  We could see absolutely nothing.

My bed was a sleeping bag on top of a straw mattress.  As I laid there, I heard what sounded like rats running and chewing in the walls.  I could hear one right above my head.  Suddenly, the cat jumped on the bed and leaped up to the wall above my head.  The cat then went down by my feet.  I could hear what sounded like bones being chewed.  When I woke up in the morning, there was a rats head on my sleeping bag.
Don and I eventually broke up.

Getting old

I am in my sixties.
I have been worried
about getting old,
since I was in my twenties.

It is here
I am wrinkled.
I have what looks like
a turtles neck.
My joints hurt.
I can't get out of the bathtub.
I can't remember where I put
anything.

I wish I could push a button
and delite old age.

On Dad's Lap

I knew Dad was home,
when I smelled popcorn popping.
I loved it when my dad came home.
He came home every Friday
after driving truck all week.

I would sit on his lap
and eat popcorn,
while watching the fights
on TV.

I would get so excited
that I would get physically sick,
but it was worth it to be
with my dad.

Listen To The Sea

My car was parked on a cliff
above the sea
The sound of the
White foam capped waves
Crashing against steep black rocks,
Made me feel peaceful and calm.
I woud lean my head back,
Breathe deep
And listen to the sea

I no longer live by the beach.
So, when I need to relax
I just pretend,
and I am there again.