On My Table

Sewing machine
Surrounded by
Cups left over from dinner
An empty box of cereal
Bean bags waiting to be filled
A pile of scraps
Bryan's pocket contents
And some yummy cinnamon rolls
Which will probably be the first
To go

Due

Another day
Has come and gone
No baby here
No happy song
Rejoicing in
Her timeliness
So I'll sit
And wait I guess
Hoping for
Another day
When she'll come out
To stay

The Things I See From Here

A bucket of pinto beans from 1973
30 jumbo rolls of toilet paper
The sewing machine
A pile of scraps
The stars that always fall when we shut the door too hard
The frisbee
A new phone book

An empty cookie jar
Just waiting to be filled

Colorful Alphabet

Colorful alphabet
On my floor
Yellow
Green
Orange
Red
Heathered Gray
Waiting to be sewn
And waiting
Even longer
To be played with

It Was Clean This Morning

Piles of scraps
Piles of squares
Piles of blankets
Piles of cords
Piles of clothes
Piles of dishes
Piles of movies
Piles of books
How did the house get so messy?

Puttering

Little projects
Every day
To pass the time

Needle and thread
Buttons and pearls
And fabric

Stitches in
Stitches out
Goes the week

Tidy up
Each night
Messy in the morning

Trying to keep busy
Waiting for the day
When she'll arrive

Little Stitches

Sewing for a
Three year-old
Is so forgiving
Ignore the puckers
The crooked stitches
The funky colors
Most importantly
It is pink
And purple
And can cuddle
And tuck in
Her dolly

Family Night

Family night
Is so much fun
That's why we have it
Every week

First a welcome
Then a prayer
Then a lesson
And something sweet

Not to mention
Activity
When we play
As a family

Oh family night
Is so much fun
It makes a Monday
Happy

Pandora

Sometimes
A song plays one thing
And I hear another

Sometimes
It plays
"Blackbird singin' in the dead of night"
And I hear Brawn teasing
And I can't help but laugh

Sometimes
Missy Higgins is singing
And all I hear is Marae
Singing with her hair hanging down over the guitar
Her feet are barefoot
And blackened
And there are grapefruits rotting in her car
Which she is happy about

Sometimes
John Schmidt is playing the piano
But instead of my empty apartment
While I'm home during the day
I feel Emily close by
And think of writing missionaries
And trying to survive being lonely
Together

Sometimes
It plays one song
And I hear another
Songs I will never hear on the radio
Songs I used to hear at two in the morning
In the Terrace lobby
After we had gotten Brawn drunk on sleep deprivation
And he would play us his heartaches
And crushes
And I would think of mine

Somewhere
There is a place
Reserved for two
I found mine
Marae found hers
Emily found hers
I wonder
Sometimes
About Brawn
Is he still waiting?

Nine Months Pregnant

One, two
I can't unbuckle my shoe
Three, four
It's hard to sit on the floor
Five, six
Pick up your own sticks for goodness sake
Seven, eight
It's quite the wait
Nine, ten
We'll see how this one goes before we do it again

Truth Number Twenty Five

Nothing
Motivates cleaning
Like visitors

Truth Number Twenty Four

Barfing
Really
Takes it out of you

Question Number Two

How many times
In the past nine months
Have I thrown up while brushing my teeth?

Truth Number Twenty Three

I spy
With my little eye
Something that is red

Question Number One

Why on earth
Did I write so many pages
While Bryan was on his mission?

Truth Number Twenty Two

August eighteenth
Would be a wonderful day
For this baby girl to be born

Truth Number Twenty One

Words cannot express
My profound gratitude for
Indoor pluming

Truth Number Twenty

I think I finally
Got the hang
Of Bang

Truth Number Neunzehn

Hu und Hott
Are waiting patiently
For baby

Truth Number Eighteen

I always have to double check
The spelling of
Numbers larger than twelve

Truth Number Seventeen

Tonight
The war begins
Against the box elder bugs

Truth Number Sixteen

I am so bad
At typing
Exclamation points

Truth Number Fifteen

Today I saw Kara and Clark
With King Kong cones
At least I had my doughnuts

Truth Number Fourteen

I am the Rummikub champion
Of the day
Oh snap what my name is

Truth Number Thirteen

I am so excited
To have the baby
On the outside

Truth Number Twelve

I'm not entirely sure
What oilcloth is
But it's very hard to find

Truth Number Eleven

There is a whole library's worth
Of children's books
I would like to own

Truth Number Ten

Spending time
With the Spendloves
Always makes me hyper

Truth Number Nine

Picking out one name
For a baby you've never seen
Is hard

Truth Number Eight

There is a pair
Of pink flip flops
Clipped to the front door

Truth Number Seven

My cheese-slice-to-cracker ratio
Unfortunately
Was not one-to-one

Truth Number Six

The remote control
Quit
Despite my enticing it with fresh batteries