napowrimo # 11

Prompt is to write about a choice you should have made in life, but didn't.  Or to dig deeper, and write about a person you disconnected with along the way.  A very difficult prompt.

To A Dear Friend I Misplaced

Yesterday on the beach near Cannery Row

under an incredibly blue sky, our baby daughters

patted the sand with tiny flat red shovels,

and we prattled of possible drooping

breasts and butts, giggled about what
sex had become, and other ironies.
We thought we heard the rumbling laughter
of John Steinbeck join us in the soft briny air.

But I flew that ocean, live half a world away.
Now we’re old gals and I bet you’re amazed we are.
Little else surprises us, everything droops.
Oh, we have some pity for our daughters,
their children now teenagers.
We should have consoled each other
while all that was going on.

I still see us watching our babies play,
as we tempered our troubles with laughter.
Not giving up our expectation of miracles,
someday we’ll sit on that white sand again,
look out over the sparkling waters and tell 
the good stories to sustain us.

                            Wanda McCollar


                   photograph by Aurelie Young