On this page: The Craft, Hannah's Harp, and At My Sister's House
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    The Craft

Like a crafty spider
I spin my sticky trap
To catch the thoughts
That fly unsuspecting

 Like a crafty weaver
I work each colored yarn
Each bit of wool, old
Or new, pieces of me

 The pattern evolves
Telling a story, simple
Yet intricate, complex
In the labyrinth of my mind. 

    -- Verlene Schermer


© Copyright 1997 Verlene Schermer
All Rights Reserved


    Hannah's Harp

And this is the way the lessons go: with Hannah’s harp on the studio floor; and Hannah’s wiggly form on the Cosco step stool; and the pleas and the bargains and elaborate excuses; and me (I’m the teacher, or so I thought) crying out "we’re almost out of time -- play just one song for me, please!" and Hannah, and Hannah’s harp playing war games "left hand, no I want right, no, play me, no play me!" and Hannah, and Hannah’s harp acting out scripts written in real time in Hannah’s cryptic mind; and the lessons, oh, the lessons I have learned! 
    -- Verlene Schermer


© Copyright 1997 Verlene Schermer
All Rights Reserved


    At My Sister's House

At my sister’s house --
giggles at the door
"Auntie V is here, Auntie V is here!"
too much excitement
for the four-year-old,
even for the seven-year-old
mm, bread baking
giving the house the scent of home.

 Dinner -- pizza and salad and
grown-up conversations.
Tori listens, and understands
more than we realize.
She breaks in with a story
"-- two of my friends at school. . ."
Later we realize she wasn’t
changing the subject.
Thomas, bored, shows us his
plum "lookit this."

 Bedtime, Tori changes
slowly into pink flannel
stretching the evening to its
elastic limits with more stories.
Thomas undresses, shows off
his uniqueness -- "He hasn’t
learned to be shy yet."
Tori brushes her teeth "Mom
brushes Thomas’s." "No, I want
Auntie V!"
Auntie V doesn’t know how.

 Kids are down -- sighs as we
settle into sofas. Desserts,
decaf, decompression.

    -- Verlene Schermer


© Copyright 1997 Verlene Schermer
All Rights Reserved


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