From My Bookshelf: A Poem for My Parents
If you’ve already read our August newsletter (which went out to subscribers last week), you know that August is party time for me. In the past few days I’ve been a happy guest at my nephew’s second birthday fête (theme revealed on his mommy’s blog), and at the surprise celebration my cousin hosted for her husband’s more-than-second birthday (no theme, just lots of fun!).
August also brings my parents’ wedding anniversary. And yesterday, their gift arrived.
One of the poems I wrote last summer was inspired by a weekend visit to my parents. That weekend was marred, as some of their days are, by one of my mother’s migraines. I watched the small events that surrounded the episode: my mother staying in bed; my father bringing her water and Advil before e-mailing friends to cancel brunch; a phone call to the pharmacy to help with a decision to try a new medicine (which, for my mother, who has suffered some terrible and even life-threatening reactions to medications, is not easy). And I wrote a poem: “Cure.”
That poem was accepted for publication in an anthology that has just been published: Migraine Expressions. My copy arrived yesterday. And it is gorgeous!
The book will be my anniversary gift to my parents this year. I’ll point them directly to my poem on page 34. With any luck, their anniversary will be otherwise entirely migraine-free. (Or, as my niece might say, “Grandma will NOT have a heady-ache!”)