Family Reunion

3-30-24

There’s this radiant joy.

Do you feel the vibration in the air?

The steady pulses, the waft of merriment?

Everyone’s buzzing with blitheness.

I can practically feel the vibrancy

This life can feel free.

The sun shines so brightly,

harnessing my skin to ignite and glow with ferocity

The breeze causing my coils to quiver ever slightly

The birds sing, while the wind chimes ring,

It sounds like a symphony of spring.

While the flowers are rustled by the wind,

dandelions fly ,children ready for wishes

Dance to catch the morsel of white.

What a time to be alive.

wooden beads clacking, as little legs race,

they hope the butterfly’s will land on their braids.

Faces lit anew as the cardinal sing.

Children wrestling in the yard,

Uncles manning the grill, not too far.

“Slow down gym shoes!” aunties yell,

as the kids run through the kitchen.

Cousins take a walk outside sipping something new.

“Oh, how time flies!” family swarms to recognize how you grew.

The children take a seat at Grandma’s feet ready to hear a story or two. Her travels through Mozambique, transfixed them all.

Aunty’s doing footwork, flexing their technique, as the music plays something starts to smell good as they begin to sway.

Centuries-old cornbread recipes,

The smell of baked mac & cheese.

Everyone’s personal favorite pie and sides

Fill up the table in mixed- matched pots and pans we got the sausage, greens, gumbo, and ham.

Grandma Prays as we all join hands gratefulness wafts through the land.

Energy? Bright.

Oh the stories we tell! Mini conversations all around the space four in the living room, two in the kitchen, and six in the dining room.

People coming in and out of the house like the front doors revolving.

The yard, front and back seems to catch the overflow.

The quiet eaters, nappers and sleeping babies all on the second floor.

Everyone is buzzing with blitheness.

As the evening settles

the stories get more exciting

the card games become less and less inviting.

Family gather to watch two cousins play intensely.

Crowd thinning, people saying long goodbyes.

An hour later half the people still there?-

Will still be there by sunrise.

The feelings harbored are happy and free those feelings stay with me.

I’ll forever remember the sweet potato pie.

The smell of Grandmas pork chops

-the bed where all the cousins lie

the sharp sparks of joy throughout the air.

I’ll never forget sitting a Grandmas feet,

as she remembers all her journeys.

Oh what a Time to be alive!