Memories of Pearls

*for Mindy Shapiro (the pictures of Mindy’s Inspirations can also be found on Facebook)

There are seasons I wear scarlet

with silver dangling from my ears

that make sounds so faint

they reminisce,

like whispers from the leaves

of my childhood Autumn, and

tastes of cherry Manischewitz

at Passover.

Then the silvery Winter baubles

laying long on my neck

with periwinkle violet drops

soft against my skin

encompassed by imagined

smells of lavender bought in Provenance

the January we loved under stars

only visible to us home in March.

May brought Spring’s yellow orange beads

of childhood marbles tossed

across cement sidewalks

the sounds of soft church bells and

playground laughter of little girls

with boxes of 64 Crayolas made

just for us creating heavenly rainbows

on large school newsprint torn

from the teachers easel in the

corner of the classroom.

Summer monsoons rush,

washing clean horizons of gray

with shades of Kingman turquoise finds,

of blueberry Colorado rivers,

blue-green saguaros surviving terrain

no human ever could.

Now we know only love

acquires pieces of the universe

then gently surrounds us with their beauty

asking for nothing in return.

Sara Fryd