We're doing a really bad job ....

Caretakers

We are the caretakers, and bad ones at that. We’re lazy and apathetic,
leaving dog poop on other people lawns and using plastic grocery bags.
We can’t even take good care of our own bodies that are filled with toxins
and cancers and parts that are even biological. We’ve become stupid with time
instead of learning to all live in harmony. We’re killing our home and each other, and
we don’t seem to want to fix the problem. Whoever left us here to take care of this utopia
is going to be very angry when they get back and see what we did.

We were very bad caretakers. We didn’t learn a thing.


© 2018 Catherine Woods

 

A different perspective: That's what I offer you

I’m a White Woman and I Want to be Heard Too

I am so tired of hearing that every woman of colour is not being heard.
Well I hear you. And I’m sorry you’re depressed, but stop complaining and
do something about it. You want to yell at me to get moving too, yes, go ahead.
I admit I’ve been sitting on my butt for too long. I admit I’ve been ignoring you.
I did not see your issues as my issues.  I did not see past the skin to the person underneath,
the person who’s tired of fighting and praying, and being forgotten. I now see
you as the treasure you are and I want to join with you . Let’s get together and win.


© 2018 Catherine Woods

Drifting Perspective

Where do I begin 

to grab your attention? With blood and knives 

or sunlight, warmth, and fresh grasses

knee-deep in summertime splendour. With your sister’s

2-year old or grandpa’s cigar Os drifting off

across the homestead veranda. Breathe in the lilacs’ sweet perfume.

Perceive the gentleness of bumble bees buzzing by.

Are you with me here and now, standing out in full sun of June or

hiding from the world’s ridiculousness undercover? Be brave

and open your mouth, craft those words and speak your peace; be brave

and plan out your future. Don’t let the giants throw you over the falls.

Bear your soul and join hands with all of us who foresee a future that is not

the one we wanted. Stand in front of that Tiananmen tank! March down Pennsylvania Avenue 

to make the world that place where you’d want your children to live in! 

Show humanity that humanity’s worth saving!  

© 2018 Catherine Woods

It's time

Too many people are sitting around and not saying anything. Not doing their part, not opening their mouths, and letting their issues be known.

Well it's time to speak up.

Man, You’re Not Listening

You offer me soft tissues and pink razors.
You open the door in front of me and stand
when I enter the room. You hide the ugliness and
filth from my eyes, but you won’t
give me a break or
equal pay for equal work, or
my right to protect my own body.

I want to be considered a welcome partner in this world, but
you don’t see my choices or reasons as mine to make or
mine to give. You just want all of the power. You just want
all of the glory. You just want a world full of men just like you.

Well, sorry bud, it don’t work that way.



© 2018 Catherine Woods

Another letter to my mother about the world today

Quick Letter to Mom

I wrote a letter to you in March 2012.
You’d been gone for six years then.
Now six years later, in 2018, I’m writing again.
You are never far from my thoughts,
though sometimes I wish you were.
You wouldn’t like the world now;
too many conflicts, not enough listening,
too little praying, everyone out for themselves.
Togetherness has been lost in a world
of smartphones and online porn.
Probably best you can’t see my tattoo.


© 2018 Catherine Woods

I Missed My Mother's Birthday

I Missed Your Birthday

January 16th came and went without pause.
You aren’t here, so I forgot your birthday.
So close to Christmas, presents were usually unsurprising
or undesired frivilousness. Chocolate was not an option
in the later years; you’d lost whatever ‘sweet tooth’ you had.
I’m not sure when you lost your desire to live. You seemed
so happy after Father’s difficult passing on. You struck out on you own:
bought a condo, a new car, and travelled. Then it was gone too soon,
losing your grip on happiness. I think you were lonely as all your friends
had left this earth or lived thousands of miles away. You went when you
couldn’t hold on any longer; what you were holding on for, I will never know.
Maybe you wanted to tell me ‘your secret’. I wish you had.
Then I could give you the best birthday present ever,
my forgiveness and my love forever.


© 2018 Catherine Woods

New Year, New Path, Same Determination

Past Todays

Today opens with promise and a brightness free born
Today will end with a wolf moon and cold like dark chocolate
In between may the hours envelop all reality with a permanence of purpose
And a late mother’s warmest hug.


© 2018 Catherine Woods

Two Days Before Christmas

Two Days Before Christmas

Stores filled with presents to buy
for those who celebrate. For those who do not,
what do you do
when the majority of us sing and drink and eat too much?
Do you even change
your daily routine of stretching the pay check
to fill empty stomachs
and gentle bewildered youngsters who don’t understand
why those kids get new toys
and we don’t? Do you explain what's happening and why we get together
with relatives we cannot
relate to or accept or deal with or do you just pass off to a later
discussion you don’t want to start?
It’s the bubbles we
currently live in that need explanation
before we are gone
with our age old family stories
of mince meat
and figgy pudding and yuletide choral hymns.
A gift of a smile and peace to all
matters, not the religion or faith or suspicions, but serves
to unite one and all.


© Catherine Woods 2017