A December Night

Today I noticed that I have been thinking about winter a lot lately. Maybe that’s not as bazaar as you might think. The weather here in Oklahoma has been in the high 90’s ever since it stopped raining. Being that hot you might as well say it’s been in the 100’s because the heat index generally makes it about 10° higher. I never have enjoyed being out and about when the sun is that hot; I burn too easily. I’ve never been able to have a ‘nice’ tan, it’s either burn or nothing at all. My sister and brother get tan but I’ve always been the totally white one in the bunch.

I took my niece to the Dermatologist once, I was in my middle to late 20’s at the time. The doctor came in the room and at once started painting a fearful picture for me. The way he said what he did I imagined the picture right away: Don’t even open your door while the sun is out, if you must go out, cover yourself with the highest sunscreen you can get, if you can’t wear a hat then use an umbrella. But don’t go out unless you absolutely have to. I asked him why and he told me I had the kind of skin that can get cancer easily. Then he pointed out the old farmers that would get skin cancer and said that I had the same skin type. After a few moments trying to keep myself from panicking I told him it was my niece that was there to see him. I really have a problem with people that feel they can just walk up to me and say anything, no matter how scary or necessary it might be. With my imagination I’m surprised that I’ve not attacked anyone when they do this. My normal reaction to confrontation is to advance, not retreat! I know he was just wanting to help me, but he didn’t know me from Adam and he didn’t know how I would react…he was a very excitable man, I must say.

Anyway, the heat seems to be on everyone’s mind at the moment. So naturally I’m there too. I feel sorry for my grand children because I won’t let them play out when it is this hot. They have to get up early or wait until it starts getting dark, then they can go out. But once you let them go out they wind up coming back in within five minutes. Then it becomes ‘the battle of the flies’ and makes me so pissed that I make them stay in anyway. There are four (I think that I have mentioned that) and the in and outs of a normal day causes the house to be bombarded with flies. I hate flies!!! Plus it sure keeps the house hotter than it need be. I won’t cook when I have to fight for space with flies. I know I’m probably obsessive about it, but that’s just the way the cookies crumble…Anyway the poem for today is: A December Night

A December Night

On a moon lit night in deep December
When the world was covered in icy white
All were abed within peaceful slumber
Save one who was having a restless night

She sits staring out her bedroom window
Looking for what, she really did not know
Searching the grounds for shadows, familiar
But all that was familiar was the snow

A sigh escapes her full, ruby red lips
As she leans her head on the window sill
Not understanding for what she is searching
Yet feeling it’s something beyond her will

Her eyes, the color of dark chocolate
Almond shaped, with lashes of velvet black
Begin to fill with tears of deep longing
A longing for something she knows she lacks

The moon gently lights her long, golden locks
Shinning about her head like a halo
Illuminating her silky night gown
With what appears as an unearthly glow

Soon she turns her attention to the fire
For the sight of memories that it keeps
But even the fire does not reveal
Any of the mysteries buried so deep

White flakes begin to fall softly again
As the night slowly drifts into new scenes
No answers have been found for her this time
Perhaps she will find them within her dreams

Susan Palmer-Davis
©2006
All Rights Reserved