My intensions at the beginning of January were to post here once a month… but I have found myself at the beginning of March, and here I am posting for the first time this year. I have been busy studying poetry with the Open University, and I hope to share some of my poems I’ve been working on, throughout the rest of the year. Learning new things has been a big part of helping me to keep moving forward and I am nearing at the halfway mark of a six year Arts and Humanities degree course.
It would have been my late husband’s birthday today which is the prompt for today’s post, and I find it therapeutic to share my thoughts and emotions on here, especially through poetry. Today I will leave this here for anyone that wants to read my poem:
Today: 9th of March 2023
Forever Forty
Today you should have been, 45 years of age
can we rewind back five years — and you would still be here?
A fortuitous video clip:
of the birthday candle we lit
and sang happy birthday to you.
Unaware that would be your last.
I burnt my finger and jolted back
from the dodgy-sparkler-candle
Your treasured laugh in the background.
Today we should be celebrating with you
Eating steak and birthday cake
sipping on sparkling wine.
Or today we could be going out
or going away on a city break
Like New York, like we always talked about.
But today you are not here
and we spend another one of your birthdays
— an empty plate and chair.
Today we don’t feel like doing much
Today we still want you back.
Today I’ve curdled like the cream
on your 40th birthday cake
Still grieving for you —
Like you just died yesterday.
Forever Forty.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful words with us
Beautiful words Laura. He would be so proud of you x