"stones for remembering..".

seven stones...each a reminder of that summer we
packed the car...just the three of us...and headed east
the beatles "one" CD playing in an endless loop
until we all knew every word and had begun to
choreograph hand dances to "eight days a week" that
made us giggle through the entire state of pennsylvania

singing and sleeping and stopping for ice cream cones
we were mom and the girls on an adventure to the sea
new york, connecticut, rhode island, the bourne bridge
cape cod....bringing you back to the first home you knew
and the sound of gulls, and surf, and the lapping of
water against your ankles.

day after day we walked the beach, collecting stones,
transluscent as alabaster when wet, and soft as marble
in your small hands.  mile after miles you would run
ahead, then turn back with a treasure for the small tin
pail we carried...until the sun was high and your skin
was pink...

a stone for the day we were caught in a rainstorm and
discovered the village library with its cozy armchairs
covered in pink chintz, and a section devoted to sea
stories...

a stone for those afternoons when you discovered how
far your hearts could stretch, how deep your love
could reach, and how big your family really was...

a stone for the morning a wave washed my book into the
sea, and you both laughed as I ran in to pull it from water
and dried it in sun...so that I could read those last seventeen
pages all wrinkled and salt bleached.

a stone for the night we sat on the seawall and watched the
moon rise over the ocean and paint a path of light all the
way to the edge of the world....each of you falling asleep
with your heads on my lap and my fingers in your hair

a stone for the day we followed a family of sea lions,
the three of us walking down the beach as they splashed and
wrstled in the water just beyond the breakers...

a stone for the everytime you held eachother as the
foam curled around your ankles and the waves rocked
your bodies back and forth in a dance of love...

a stone for sandcastles, and salty kisses, and the sound of
you sighing in your sleep after a long day of sun and
singing "yellow submarine" for the "millionth time"

a stone for the strength of those memories to carry us
through the storms of adventure, change, and growing
up far from the sea...

stone that I hold when you are not here...when a school
day seems too long to be away from the sound of
your laughter...stones that remind me... that
there was a magical summer when,  like lemmings
we made our journey home to the sea and gathered
stones for remembering....