A Collection of Poems by Patricia Miller

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Left Behind

I’m planted on a stump
Drinking bottled water
Watching you hike on
The dirt road bleached by sun
Squirrels scamper up trees
My sandals sink in moss
How did we get to this place
You so far ahead
And I so far behind
I stomp white mushrooms
Growing at my feet
Freeing my hurt
Before you round a bend
I will the turn of your head
You glance back
I smile
Why can’t we go to New York City?
There’s still time.

–

Spring Promise

The notion is to smell the wet grass

Out in the open space between the pines

See the snow melting before your eyes

And picture yourself in a red swimsuit

Dipping your toes in the lake

Feeling the warm waves

Photography by Thomas Hays – flickr.com

Hoping the fish don’t nibble

Craving more sunshine

Sixty sleeps from today

You will wonder if you should have snacked less

Regret eating the salty chips

Search for excuses

And finally

Strip away your fear and –

                Splash!

The World

We ran when we heard

–

Bells from the ice cream truck

–

Barefooted in short shorts

–

Through blades of grass

–

Coating our toes in dew

–

Jumping the fire hydrant

–

Dodging lawn chairs

–

Fingers gripping silver coins

–

Cicadas calling …

–

We knew nothing then

–

As we shifted foot to foot

–

Leaning bronze shoulder to bronze shoulder

–

Smiling in the sunshine

–

Unaware of hobos

–

Hoodlums and crack

–

We saw the world as one

–

Rainbow sherbert waffle cone

–

Full of rainbows and love

–

Until the day the truck driver

–

Stared at my chest

–

That’s when I knew

–

The world was complicated

–

More than just grass and sweets.

Patricia Miller has published photographs and non-fiction articles on home decorating and healthcare through Metroland Media Group. Titles include The Sweet Appeal of Citrus, Create Cool Cottage Charisma, and Why Does Anyone Want to Work in Long Term Care?

In 2008, Patricia established the BWG Writers’ Circle, a group of adult Writers that meets for fellowship and sharing at the Bradford Public Library.Patricia’s poem Birthday Mosaic 40 was published in the literary journal The Toronto Quarterly – Issue Five in 2010. Her poem Our Cottage My Heaven was published in Anthology: From the Cottage Porch by Sunshine in a Jar Press in 2011. The anthology is a dynamic collection of forty stories and poems.

Patricia is delighted that her true love story Catching Snowflakes appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: O Canada The Wonders of Winter in 2013.

www.chickensoup.comPatricia is thrilled that first fiction novel The Mausoleum Road Affair, a sweeping erotic romance, arrives from Swoon Romance in Fall, 2014.

www.myswoonromance.com 

Categories: Poetry

Tags: frustration, growing up, life, Patricia Miller, poem, poet, poetry, promises, spring, youth