My dear friend, of two intense, revelatory years of intimate and prolific communication
Category: friendship
Becky
she insisted we roll the car windows down
while the a/c was cranking
and she just kept it cranking
in her mid 90s silvery Saturn sedan,
second-hand from her parents,
three little boys crammed in the back seat
a baby girl not yet in her belly,
as we drove down the Kennedy, then the Dan Ryan, heading to the Skyway
for our weekly day-trip
to the southwest Michigan coast
our cooler stuffed with tarragon chicken salad sandwiches for us, fried chicken drumsticks for them, at least two pounds of black cherries, pickles, diet cokes, limes, and capri-suns — the box of white cheddar cheez-its hardly ever made it all the way to the Warren Dunes on the ride from Chicago
for the Lake, the beach, the inlet hike to the clay pit,
the Dune climb, always hoping for some gentle, yellow-flag waves, and the long, eastern time-zone Sun’set over platinum blue water
perplexed, delighted by this novelness, by her unconvention:
a/c on our skin — and summer air blowing in our hair?
Continue reading “Becky”institutional knowledge
another part of mourning, an enduring part of mourning:
the loss of the “institutional knowledge” of you that they alone held, documented and archived;
when
a life-long, childhood or early adulthood friend
a beloved mother, or grandmother, or father,
a harmonious sibling, a close cousin
a long-time lover,
a partner in a long marriage, officiated — or not
a child whom you birthed or raised and who may have also birthed or raised you, have mercy.
when, those relationships become one-sided through death — or other endings,
not only are they gone,
Continue reading “institutional knowledge”“Forever You”: an ode to friendship at the horizon of loss
as my longest and dearest friend,
Jill Johnston Hayes
neared death
an illuminated scroll
drawn on gold metallic cardstock
with pen, marker, paint and crayon
Lajuana Lampkins
September 2023
FOREVER “you”…
My childhood friend, and through the years, we've grown together, shared joy and tears, were bonded like the day and night, our hearts forever will unite, you've given me, a chance to be, a friend forever, most definitely, I am forever, there is no end, you'll always be, my most best friend, each day and night, I keep you near, always know, that I am here. Thank you for, the love you've shared, nothing else can compare, So much we've grown, and been all through, forever is forever you.
Poem by Lajuana Lampkins
©️copyright Lajuana Lampkins
September 2023
Continue reading ““Forever You”: an ode to friendship at the horizon of loss”
the limineen | earthling, poet & crone 