This Poem was Submitted By: Karen Ragan On Date: 2002-04-09 14:04:25 . . . Click Here To Mail this Poem to a Friend!

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An Ivory Card

An ordinary shoe box holds such treasures lined with wallpaper housewives, still dancing a tiny space to hold a lifetime suspended hiding crayon scribbles inside tattered corners paper still smudged with childhood's dust momentos softly speak in heart whispers chubby scrawls saying 'I LOVE YOU MAMA' to a soul filled with yesterday's dreams ~ Moments reborn instantly at tender glance Hallmark greeting with his warm embrace new envelopes upon shelves, fond wishes from dozens of choices, one carefully chosen  enfolded in a delicate card, simple words  smooth ivory card hides in shiny gold  sweet child grown, seeing spoken treasures Again I read a son's priceless words... "There aren't enough pens aren't enough pencils I'd run out of paper my ink would run dry before I could describe what you mean to me..." Envelope lined in elegant gold, now faded folded parchment paper, precious fragments more than ink characters, imprinted memories upon smooth ivory surface, simply words from distant moments, indelibly remembered warm tears slip to smudge aged ink lips slowly move, words silently speaking  'I love you, mother,' forever heart engraved as fingertips fondly trace timeless love ~

Copyright © April 2002 Karen Ragan

Additional Notes:
Without being able to italicize words and use different fonts for chosen words (a scrawled font for 'I love you Mama,' I could not get the total effect that I did in my own printshop version of this piece. I italicized the last two words of each line and all of the card quote in the middle. Reading only the italicized words gives you an even simpler version...giving a feeling of memories and thought impressions. I purposely only added punctuation I thought necessary, which looks better in italicized version. My oldest son gave me the treasured card that I write about in this piece. I really have a large shoe box in my closet where I keep handmade cards, crayon drawings, etc.--most of them made for me many years ago by my three grown sons(I have a 10-yr-old, however, so I'm still adding childhood momentos) The box is covered and lined in pink paper adorned with tiny figures of housewives doing various duties that housewives do--who appear to be dancing merrily on the paper! Being chiefly a "domestic engineer" for the better part of 30 years, this picture of happy housewives stuck in my mind--although I don't always dance merrily as I work! (:


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