Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver

Thank you to the team at MasticadoresCanada for publishing my poem!

The New Girl –by Barbara Leonhard

The New Girl

I pray to be a perfect work,
a masterpiece of unchipped clay,
to heal all wounds and scars,
to run on strong legs once again, 
as a young girl, who sang and danced 
in fields of fescue stroking my legs
and meadows where I gathered wildflowers
to braid in my hair.

But the hinges on an old barn rust,
flowers wither to dust and hair singes in the sun. 
Time crimps the skin of a worn face
and stuffs it inside a drawer with the hand-me-downs
of others’ stories of their days gone,
my life, at best, unlived in mindless matters
viewed in broken mirrors that fracture fate.

When my limbs fail, and they will,
and my heart cracks apart,
and my face pales as I bleed out time, please
bear the load of this venerable vessel
to a sacred space of stone and fire.

Burn my gowns, but tissues for my tears, 
washing away the ashes of my years
to Hebe’s deep ambrosia spring, 
wherein I can sink 
and drink rebirth.

First published in Free Verse Revolution Literary Magazine, 2021

For More of My Poetry

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