After a week’s absence
You stood there smiling,
Framed by the office door,
Silently waiting,
Watching for me to notice
Your return,
Expecting,
Electricity!
Cerita M. Hewett
March 7,1997
I love my mother.
Her sparkling, laughing, blue eyes often read,
She easily made the most wonderful bread,
She knew how to listen to what I said.
I love my gray sweater.
Soft, warm, and worn,
Pulled over my head looking old and forlorn,
I’ll keep on wearing it though it is torn.
I love the color blue.
On white Florida sand, the azure gulf rises,
Blue skies, blueberry pie, Roger’s blue eyes,
And blue butterflies.
I love to go to the mountains to roam.
In summer away from our hot Texas home,
Wading in cold streams won’t cause me to moan,
Though building rock dams can chill one to the bone.
I love children.
Tall, short, skinny, fat,
Those who giggle, cry, and pout,
The runners, the jumpers, and the sitters about.
I love reading and writing.
Learning from poems, stories, and books,
I like to see how my ideas look,
Written on a page of my very own book.
I love baked potatoes.
Covered with butter, chives, and sour cream,
Topped with cheese, chili, olives, it will seem,
Like something that came from your very best dream.
I love Roger sweet and true.
Sailing on the lake so blue
Working with an untried crew,
Always, always, making do.
Cerita M. Hewett
About 1994 revised 2002
A polished sandhill crane
Stands on the table of my room,
White Tail-feathers nearly brush the ground,
Slender feet sustain it carefully,
As though ‘twould walk quite soon,
Beneath the long and gracious neck,
Shines out an oval spot of brown.
Her beak,
Like an ivory needle gently drawn high,
Attracts my eyelids upward from the earth,
Stretching gladly toward the pale blue sky.
My spirit seems to soar with a new birth.
The one who carved you
From that discarded horn,
Made you to match his lofty thought,
Through his delightful toil,
Your life was born,
By his sincerity
A thing of beauty wrought.
You stand there doing nothing,
Bending not a knee,
Still in your shaping
A heart gave,
Now looking
Uplifts me.
Cerita Marie Moore
January 4, 1966
The pond,
Built with his hands and a
Heart full of love,
Draws raccoons and fox to drink from it,
Allows minnows and frogs a swimming place,
With rocks, large, rough, black and orange,
Making sunning places for turtles, geckos, and people,
While still water provides a reflecting surface
For tall old weathered trees,
And small young bushes.
Its little waterfall
Bubbles and splashes with living water,
Available to all who come seeking it.
Cerita M. Hewett
September 21, 2015
You brought a heart-shaped box of chocolates,
I don’t remember you doing this before,
It was the perfect gift this year
After so much sacrifice and service.
I opened it,
We smelled its richness,
We read all the descriptions of each specialty,
Peanut cluster, mint, caramel, pecan, vanilla nugget,
Then I suggested we each pick one to eat,
You remarked, “I bought them for you.”
I answered, “Eating alone is no fun.”
We each ate three,
Laughing, reveling, declaring their goodness,
Savoring the shared valentine moment.
Reluctantly we closed the glossy lid,
I washed the supper dishes in the glow of
Our heart-felt box of chocolate happiness.
Cerita M. Hewett
Feb. 14, 2013
Revised 2014