Continuity

On entering, we are assailed by the smells:

sausage and sage, butter, brown sugar,

cinnamon …

commingling, tempting;

then the warmth

oven on long before dawn,

steam rising from various sized pots…

not to mention body heat—

for everyone gathers here in this room.

Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole

echo from the wooden console radio

in the next room,

two sisters croon out their favorites;

a third—younger—swoons, exclaiming once again

how she “loves that skinny Italian boy from Jersey.”

A cacophony of voices and laughter

rise and fall.

The house becomes a budding entity

breathing,  beating with the life

of those gathered here…

We carry these images from our past...

family, friends, gatherings

spinning together as one.

Defining; reminding where we come from,

who we are

...and we pass it forward

to our children,

this gift of unconditional love

in a place we call ‘home.’

©  Ginny Brannan 2014

Family photo, 1956. 

Shared: dVerse Poets Meeting the Bar: Thanksgiving Turkey with a side of Poetry
Also honored to have it shared here by Women's Spiritual Poetry

The image is my family: towards the back Aunt Jane on the left; then my mom, with her back to us, stylin' as always; then Aunt Mary and Aunt Rose, to the far right peaking in with glasses I believe is my Aunt "Butch"(Bernadette); in the foreground leaning over I believe is my Italian grandfather, that baby on the lap, that would be me, not sure in whose lap but it could be Aunt Ginny or one of my dad's sisters. I remember so many Christmases of my childhood, tradition to stop at Aunt Mary's house after church (she lived across the street from the church!). Her stereo would be on playing all the holiday favorites. The reference to "that boy in NJ" is for my Aunt Gin, who adored Frank Sinatra! My mom passed when I was seven, this photo a freeze-framed memory of a very special time.