Oops – forgot about the taxes –
dropped like so many things
in the sprint where we keep thinking
we’ll get to a place we can pause
It feels good to be exercising
our marathon powers,
pure and singular to be streamlining
our lives to do as much
as we can. But irresponsible
to forget the taxes
and have to do backflips tomorrow
to get things back in line.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2021
We talk of fruit trees,
we let the fire go out
(we only needed a small fire anyway)
light rain patters on the roof
We have so many plans,
more things we want to do right now
than we could do in three seasons
(a habit we might want to leave behind)
A friend told me today,
“Love’s ideas don’t need to struggle to unfold “
You climb up the ladder to bed,
I think on these things.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 23, 2021
It’s not that the cold
wants to come in.
Though it may seem so,
it’s not prying at the edges
of the doors and floors,
seeping in through all untended cracks
It is that warmth is drawn to cold –
wants to share, wants to fill the hole,
to wrap itself around the cold
and bring it home
And so it looks for places
where it can get out,
where it can spread its fingers
and reach them to the cold
and warm it just a little
as it drifts out thinner
into the night.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 7 2021
My house, my lineage,
my house, my home,
my house, my consciousness
and everything that flows through it
If this earthly house were dissolved,
it would just prove
the underpinnings of the place I dwell,
unmoved, ever restoring
the self-contained interior
of what’s infinite.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 4, 2021
Maybe we’ve forgotten
or maybe we never knew
how to celebrate –
little leaps to match inner elation,
thoughts of calling someone to proclaim,
a feast, a party – but no, we can’t do that,
and so we go to town and get.a sandwich
(and also some propane)
And sleep in, the next day, a little later,
and have a slightly shorter day of work,
and set ourselves up for the next sprint,
which will be fun. And therein lies the joy –
it will be fun!
©Wendy Mulhern
February 20, 2021
Evening has me considering
today’s flavor of nothing to say,
rain settled in around the cabin,
a skunk, by the smell outside, underneath
The fire, having warmed our space
and cooked our meal, and made hot water
for cleaning up, is out to pasture –
a little flame retained so it will not go out
but small enough to not be overbearing
We have worked,
we have wrestled demons,
we will essay the same tomorrow,
this being the stuff of our days,
the course we are here to complete.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 3, 2021
I started to think about
what would be comfort –
end of day, sun gone down,
cold cabin waiting dark,
food to prepare
I started to picture it –
someone to care for me,
some place of light and warmth
where I could rest
The images slipped away quickly,
shifting and melting, canceling out,
till all I had left was a golden glow
and a feeling of worthiness
from having loved
So I knew that I had what I needed,
beyond and above the wood for the fire
and the place I could sit
and the noodles to eat
I knew that I had what I needed,
and that was comfort enough.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 6, 2020
These short cold days,
the sun, even when it does come out
doesn’t have much time
to melt the ice, to warm the air,
and while it can land steady
on the south slope,
it only glances down the north,
leaving long shadows behind short stubble,
unable to dry the wood
dampened by fog and frost
This time of year
we fall short of our goals,
leave the night watch
to the cold stars,
start up next day
as slow as the sun does,
move through our project the same.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 3, 2020
That we can work together
through rain,
that we can be cheerful
as puddles form
and gloves get wet
gives me a chortle,
a bright warming,
an inner heat source
to counteract my dampened clothes
We kept on working
while the rain came harder,
and then it stopped, and we continued,
the appreciation that we had
each for the other
as strong a structure as the frame we built.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 3, 2020
It took us longer than we thought it would –
designing methods, designing rigging,
and time for extra careful execution of the steps,
several hours to get ready,
then fifteen minutes to perform the deed,
and maybe half an hour, after that,
to shore it up
When we were finished
we felt victorious,
mind having triumphed over dead weight,
heart having triumphed over cold.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2020