Heart Speak
Written by JoAnn Spencer . In loving memory of her Uncle Wes copyright © 2017

Have you ever seen it?
Have you ever been there?
When the lips are moving but the mind isn’t there.
Alzheimer, Dementia, or just old age.
It caught me off guard.
I thought he was there.

He talked of his mother.
Who died when he was young.
And his first drink with his only son.

He said it once and then again and that’s when I knew
It was his heart, not his head, he was speaking from.
What will you say when it all goes away?
When the filters of your mind diminish with time.
The heart doesn’t lie, it doesn’t know how.
How have you lived?
What’s important to you?
What will you say, when it all goes away
and your heart speaks …for YOU?

Forever Friends

Written by Heidi Wright,

It was stuffed at the bottom of a box
In the back of my closet
On the top shelf

I found it, living in that box as if the day itself was still alive
As if it were a video and not a still shot

Six of us, at a wedding, in a backyard
We were still smiling, still laughing, still exchanging knowing glances as the day unfolded

I remember that day well
And It made me smile to meet it again
Relive it
So long ago

Forever friends6
The kind that knew what each other was thinking
The kind that could anticipate the very moment another would crack a joke,
or make a sarcastic remark

Life has taken us different places for different reasons
Ups and downs, twists and turns,
good times, hard times
Some planned, some unexpected
Penetrating pains as well as powerful pleasures

Experiences we would have talked about over a cup of coffee
In a corner booth

What are they up to now?
How are their kids doing?
What twists, what turns,
What unexpected moments has life brought them?

Do they have this picture somewhere?
Up In a closet,
Or in a box under the bed?
In a photo album? In a frame?

Forever friends.
Such a precious magical time of life.

Yet with time's passing
Changes come
Sometimes striking
Sometimes imperceptible

And forever friends, like photos
are sometimes lost to hidden places.
On high shelves,
and out of reach.