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You’ve Got It, Child
By Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios
I am full of gratitude for the restless sea, sky butter-milked with clouds, the gentle love of a girl named Shih Tzu. What can I do to reach out from this bliss to the needy world?
I have given you all you need.
What am I supposed to feel right now?
Feel what you will, it is all important or not.
What can I do to move over the hurdle of this chaos?
There is no chaos, only change. You may not be around for the end, only enjoy what is the now.
Sometimes I cannot reseed the patches of my life.
Do not carve your initials in the tree or scrape your name in the dust, your footsteps do not matter. No one will care. All will be taken away, but much will be given to you.
How can I light the way?
Light the wicks on the wax ravens and enjoy the flight.
Sometimes I cannot bring myself to take down the pictures of the dead I carry inside.
To remember is a part of me, but to not let go is a death of a different kind.
Why do the poisons of the air, the earth, the sea, the flames of the forest disturb who I am as a human? Why do guns, bombs, destruction jar my inner self – shaking me to a place I cannot reach?
Because you are my child, my miracle, my right hand, the one who cares for the earth, the sea and all who dwell within. Be still and listen to what you are to do.
Why does an image of an angel descending toward a miracle that never comes, haunt me?
Because you are waiting for a miracle which is already here.
What if I forgave those who destroy us and take over who I am and leave me a vanishing shadow in the dust?
That is right child, what if, what if?
Sometimes I want to gather up my shattered glass and stars with both hands and cradle them safely home.
I think you’ve got it, Child.
Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios‘ award winning chapbook, Special Delivery, was published in 2016, and her second, Empty the Ocean with a Thimble by Word Tech Communications.
Twice nominated for a pushcart prize, she has poems published in various anthologies and journals including Stories of Music, The Poeming Pigeon, Love Notes from Humanity, Stories of Music, American Journal of Poetry, Cumberland River Review, The Feminine Collective, The Kentucky Review, Unsplendid, Edison Literary review, Passager, and NILVX.
She is a Professor Emerita from American University, artistic director of the Redwoods Opera in Mendocino, California, a member of international Who’s Who of Musicians, and has spent much of her life performing as a singing artist across Europe and the United States.
