94poems/kept

Free expression,
room to be, I think,
my out-stretched fingertips
against the walls –
the fleshy, sinewy
walls, damp and
sticky to the touch.
Peter, Peter, what
hard won lessons
in our nursery
rhymes.

Peter, Peter pumpkin eater
had a wife and couldn’t
keep her.
Put her in a pumpkin
shell and there he kept
her very well.

Perhaps I should have explained what I meant by the word kept – that I meant not throw away, or put out to the trash, not squander, waste, sully, or soil. Keep – as in care for, hold fast to, shelter when needed, shine if required. Keep, as in family photos, your grandmother’s quilts, your mother’s silver, implying cherish, treasure, hold dear.