Shortlist Saturdays: Even Sorrow Has A Melody by Susan Richardson

Even Sorrow has a Melody

My mother sang to me                                                                            

before I was born,

ivory melodies

that urged me to grow

and fill the empty space in her womb.

On birthday mornings,

she serenaded me awake

just before the sun

whispered onto the horizon,

a moment we had shared

since her fingers first

brushed worry from my eyes.

She chased the grey from rainy days

with the tickling of piano keys,

musical afternoons scampered over

by hurried rabbits consulting pocket watches,

Siamese cats with sharp toothed grins

and princesses turning in endless circles.

When I was sad,

she eased the weight of my tears

with songs from our favourite musicals,

let me sing the part of Evita,

taught me even sorrow has a melody.

My father gave us a soundtrack

to mark the seasons of our lives.

The thrum of guitar strings

flooded our childhood summers,

lazy afternoons filled with moon shadows,

rainy day women and wishing we were willows.

On car rides to chilly mountain retreats,

he let us each choose a cassette

to make the long journey feel shorter.

We opened the windows and turned up the volume,

a family of September renegades

flying through hurricanes,

determined to make it one way or another.

Music lived on the tip of his tongue.

He sang for the rising and falling of life,

the stirring of pots

and the emptying of cauldrons.

He sang when he was happy

and when grief took hold like a sickness.

In a care home on a quiet Autumn afternoon,

my sister and I sat on the edge of his bed

singing his favourite songs,

holding his hands

as he took his last sips of air.

Susan Richardson is the author of Things My Mother Left Behind, from Baxter House Editions, Tiger Lily: an Ekphrastic Collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell, and Smatterings of Cerulean, a collection of short poems accompanied by the photographs of Ken Whytock, from DarkWinter Press. Her poetry has appeared in Skylight 47, The Storms, Crannog, Door is Ajar, California Quarterly, The Opiate Magazine, and Rust+Moth, among others.  She also writes the blog, Stories from the Edge of Blindness, and hosts the podcasts, A Thousand Shades of Green and Story Sessions.