The Spinecrackers

I'd like to share my special Christmas present with all of my kindred spirits (sorry, I just watched Anne of Green Gables). This year in my family, we did it secret santa style. I asked if everyone was cool with a handmade gift, which to my surprise, I got one giant thumbs up across the board. On this 2010 xmas morn, I opened my prez, and lo and behold, it was a handmade present. My grandma wrote me a poem and had it framed. She reminisces with me FREQUENTLY (as only grandma's do) about how I used to love when she'd get me sailor dresses, which has led her to forever think of me when she sees anything having to do with sailors, the sea, etc. So I knew from the title that this poem was going to make me feel gut wrenching love for her, and could quite possibly bring me to tears in the middle of a large group of nosey italians. I made it through with a knotted throat and clenched teeth. She emailed it to me later "just in case." She's written piles of poems, gotten published in newspapers, magazines, etc., and I feel honored that she took the time to write this one just for me.



The Little Girl in a Sailor Dress




Reminiscent of sailing

a drifting away she would

one day do

As though we knew

we dressed her

in sailor dresses


The quick smiles

the giggles

laughter like small waves rippling

in a stream

The dreamer whose eyes looked

into distance

beckoning the world to be hers

so we dressed her

in sailor dresses


The faraway looks

that exposed her soul

We had to have seen it all




The seafarer

eager to set sails

on foreign shores

magic cities to capture

Sinbad, her secret lover

enticing her with stories

of lands to be explored

mountains to climb

and rivers to cross


But it was not yet to be

too many moons had still

to glide across translucent skies

for the Little Girl in a Sailor dress


Time now

unwrapped

Her wayfaring heart

eager to pause

to rest

in a city by the sea

while her eyes set on new horizons

to explore promises made

by the Little Girl in a Sailor Dress

grams 1942