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
