VALENTINE LEMONADE
Looking back on love’s long tunnel of Valentine variety,
remembering old cards and songs in rhyming entirety.
Mom’s voice echoes, “I love you a bushel and a peck….”
sweet long-ago song—words not needing a fact-check.
The future sent flowers—chocolates in Valentine boxes,
expressing sweet heartfelt love…or sly henhouse foxes?
Turning “a bushel and a peck” of lemon into lemonade,
sweet or sour recipe, a glass of sunshine in life’s parade.
Valentine Day, collected memory—kisses custom-made,
finding life’s true adventure, sweetens even lemons into lemonade.
April Ryan is a Seattle poet recalling sweet chocolates and loving Valentines as well as some lemons.
SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.).
SHARING STORIES is featured on http://www.northwestprimetime.com, the website for Northwest Prime Time, a monthly publication for baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and those contemplating retirement. The newspaper can be found in the greater Seattle area and other Puget Sound locations. For more information, call 206-824-8600 or visit http://www.northwestprimetime.com. To find other SHARING STORIES articles on this website type “sharing stories” in the search function above.
