Two new poems - Family

So, after skirting the subject out of fear that I would not do it justice, family has come to the forefront of my poetry for a time.

Here are two inspired by my grandmother.  If you don't quite get it, it's o.k. Here are some clues.....my grandmother had a silent laugh.  When she got to laughing hard enough she stopped making noise and just did an almost silent wheeze as a laugh.  In 'The Laugh' I am trying to capture that memory.

Not many remember the 'Hand with the Power,' but I sure do.  When we couldn't open a jar or lid, my Grandmother would take it and in one swift try, remove the lid as though there was never any problem.  She called it her 'Hand with the Power.'  Now if you knew my grandmother, she had bad arthritis by the time I remembered her using the 'Hand with the Power' so it was really something to see her open a jar or bottle with those beautiful crooked hands.  She employed it, in my young memory, whenever there was something we kids couldn't do by ourselves.  For me, it was just another one of the many wonderful things I loved about her.

The Laugh

September 27, 2010

By Kimberly L. McClune

At first a giggle

Then a soft laugh.

As it progresses

Becomes silent

And more funny

As it persists.

Breathing shorter

Then a wheeze.

Tears fall

Sides held.

Silence maintains

Then slowly subsides.

****

The Hand with The Power

September 27, 2010

By Kimberly L. McClune

Whether bottle, jar, or box

If the lid was stuck,

Too tight to move,

You took it and employed

The hand with the power.

It could remove any impediment

To the progress of a meal,

Remove any obstacle to a project,

Relieve any doubt of you

And your great abilities.