Time Must Be Spent

Time must be spent

On learning or doing something important

Like Living, in a blink

If I’m lucky I’ll be fifty, my daughter will be ten

We will have taught her to ride a bike by then

Like writing a poem, remembering what it was I said

in the shower the other day

It sounded good out loud

Like Laughing, breathing deep and finding joy

In the chaos of a temper tantrum

In the little mouth circling around the word No

Time must be spent

Leaping Into ice cold rivers that jolt the systems

Bathing in the moon and running beneath the sun

Crying out thank you for this life

In service, in hearing the call and answering

Finding the exhale In my overwhelm

Time must be spent

Writing on the backs of photographs

Names and dates to generations I will never see

But will undeniably be a part of

Becoming a story that she will tell

writing that story with every breath

Hoping that my granddaughter will know

To put my picture on the mantel with our kin

Time must be spent

Cutting through the noise, getting down

to the truth: we are all dying here

Sweat streams down the brow

She suckles my breast and snuggles hands between

We are warm, living, my baby and me, and

Time must be spent