tree

Light and Splintered Tree

| Abby Kelly

I wept as I was overwhelmed

By lists and piles of things.

I longed for simpler

Winsome days of sand and plastic swings.

Now life is running on the sand.

Each step sinking low –

Like trudging through molasses.

Frustration. Agonizing. Slow.

Must. Get. There.

Must finish, arrive.

But I often wonder what

For I am compelled to strive.

Sweat pours mingled with tears of loss.

I refuse His yoke and the weight of the cross.

If I would but stop and lower my knee.

Bend and take up that splintered tree.

If I would walk with Him, strive with Him, pull with Him.

He vowed to lessen the load.

“Easy,” He called it. “Light,” He said.

Why my pride, march on instead?

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Christmas Memory

| Abby Kelly

I thought your absence would mellow,

That time would dull the ache I feel,

When I smell snicker-doodle coffee

When I slip on a soft flannel shirt.

I worried that I would slowly forget

The callous of your fingers

The sharpness of your whistle.

I thought your absence would mellow.

But just yesterday I cried.

I miss you.

I remember so many Christmases

When I was a little girl.

I remember caroling and gazing at the lights.

I remember services at your church.

Plates of cheese and crackers,

After candlelight services.

Stacked in bunk-beds for meager hours

Till we could tumble down the stairs.

You waited at the foot,

Steamy, black coffee in hand.

Sun-sparked through frosty windows.

A buzz of home and warmth.

The air was full of you.

Of bridled enthusiasm for childish glee.

As we tumbled down the stairs

To assault the Christmas tree.

I promise to remember.

Your voice echoes in my heart.

Christmas will never be quite the same

As long as we’re apart.

Granddad, I miss you.

Grandma, we remember.

But, remember,

It won’t be this way forever.

Left and Lost

| Abby Kelly

You left me years ago.

My heart tried to tell me so.

Cruelly you lied and told me no.

I wondered why we failed to grow.

Like a withered flower still in the ground,

An ancient stump, its circles round.

Counting the years it tried to survive,

Counting the years it looked alive.

But yielded no fruit,

Nothing to show.

I know now why we failed to grow.

Because you left me years ago.

My heart, it tried to tell me so.

But you just lied and told me no.

Now, I’m wondering where to go.