Toesies touching on linoleum laid over
concrete set over
the soil of the Hillcountry of Texas.
I dance with my father
kicking up audible shuffles through the breezy screen door.
Onto the patio we swing bumping into mamas and babies and grandpeople.
Their shuffles are audible too,
nestled behind JJ Cale. Call me the breeze.
At dusk the family dances.
Bathing-suited mamas and babies and grandpeople lay on
innertubes floating on
the the Guadalupe River.
We traveled to the bridge to float home on the clear green current.
Away from water moccasins at the banks we splash
imagining alligator gars and catfish nibbling on toesies.
We smell of sunscreen and dusty lifejackets.
Home the family floats.
Older we grew.
Farther we moved.
Scattered across plains, hills, and mountains we flew.
Babies turned to fathers.
Fathers turned to soldiers.
Girls turned to wives.
Mamas and Daddies turned to grandpeople.
Grandpeople turned to great-grandpeople.
All of us little people bound together, called family.
Eachother the family loves.
Minds recall faces and lovely memories nestled in
hearts of
the families branched of Billingslea- Hobbs and Moore.
We remember and miss and talk to God about eachother.
We walk along the paths laid before us
hoping for the intersection of convenience and missing.
One day we’ll find ourselves reunited in one
Promised Land
or another.
Home we are headed!
Pearl Music 
Hmmm… good beat, just like dancing. “mamas and babies… reunited… home we are headed.” It means a fuller, richer thing now. Lovely.
I just returned from this very spot, Sleepy Hollow on the Guadalupe (I think) where we spent 2 weeks…I’m a cousin you haven’t met, but I have such good memories of time with your mama! I just saw Tulisa in San Antonio a week or so ago, and she told me about your blog. I am absolutely blown away by the depth and beauty of your words, your heart. I want to write more and see you. We live just south of Denver. I am a collector of words…quotes, poetry. Your gift of writing is such a blessing to people like me who “borrow” these words when we are struggling to express our hearts. I don’t know if there is an English word(s) to adequately express the depth of sorrow you must feel having Samuel on earth with you all for such a short time. A favorite quote of mine by Charles Dickens somehow expresses the “unfathomableness” of such loss:
And can it be
That in a world so full and busy,
the loss of one creature
makes a void in any heart,
so wide and deep that nothing
but the width and depth of eternity
can fill it up.
Charles Dickens
We are in the Springs often. Our boys’ god parents have a ministry there. I would love to take you to lunch, go for a walk, just visit. You have really blessed me!
You’re right–it is about Sleepy Hollow, Hallie. I didn’t know I had family in Colorado! š I would love to hang out with you sometime. I will email.
And I love that quote. Love it.