Brave Lady

Eyes bluer than you’ve ever seen,

this woman’s brave.

You only notice them at first,

followed by the brilliance of her smile

that overshadows all the scars

from all the battles that she’s fought

and lost, or fought and won,

but she’s been fighting long

and hard for many years.

She’s learned to rest.

She’s earned some rest.

And all the complications

and the conversations that are hard

and razor-edged will be no match

because she’s found her peace.

(c) Ellen Gillette, 2022

Energy

The energy to hold the pencil
and to make it move escapes me
and I stop, mid-sentence, syllables
and punctuation caught and held
in the vicinity of my elbow, stranded
while I close my eyes and find the will
to free them, releasing words onto
the paper while the background jazz
sings a lullaby. My lids could close
for hours, days. A week could pass
and then I would awaken, energized,
enthused, enraptured, captivated by
the words I wrote the week before.



(c) Ellen Gillette