That day

I wish I could enshrine that day
In my mind, nay, in my soul
And share it still.
It was a perfect day
A day in which I drank my fill.
And store for a time to come
When we shall no longer be
Together as one.

First we came, to seaside town
Then we ate and passed round
The last bite of just one sweet.
Then went to walk in a deserted
park to where we met the sea
And walked that hillside path
Taking great care
Not to stumble there
Or fall the fatal fall
Upon the rocky shore bellow

My eyes were full
To gaze upon that gentle sea
My heart was filled
I see you still, the dearest souls
In my menagerie.
My husband, daughter, son
No, not children, but grown
That after wandering have come home.
One on a rock, one near the broken boat
One, feet in the water, and me
Sitting in a gnarled tree.

Were I to paint this scene
It would be fine.
The sun, the blues, the hills
The pelican standing on a lapping boat
Unafraid and so still.

What is all this to me?
It is the priceless threads of gold
From which I weave
The tenderest strings of me.
The prize for which i strove
With every fiber of my wishing.
It is the deepest well
From which I draw my breathing.
A thing to be caressed within my breast.
As a mother, wife and me, all live
To see things well, for these I carry close.
This was a perfect space,
a still-life painted in my soul
An easy peace, an inlet beach,
Few words, a few jokes, a kindly breeze.
Forever and ever
Please remember these.

Rhea Harmsen
Copyright August 2020

About rheaharmsen

Rhea Harmsen is a scientist, novelist and author of Language of the Spirit, a volume of selected poems. She has also released three novels, The Harvest of Reason, Intermarry, and God Created Women. Harmsen was born in a family with a black father and a white mother at a time when interracial marriage was still illegal in some states. Her parents gave her a vision of world citizenship that informs her writing and her lifestyle and has caused her to reject traditional views of race and gender. Harmsen's article "Science in the Hands of Women: Present Barriers, Future Promise" appeared in World Order in 1998 and provides the foundation for the story line for her novel The Harvest of Reason. She co-published the Monroeville Race Unity Forum Bulletin and authored many poems on racial topics, crystallizing the "conversation on race" in the novel Intermarry. Her work with domestic violence survivors in Puerto Rico inspired the novel God Created Women. Harmsen holds a doctorate in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently resides in Puerto Rico. Upcomming projects are described in her web page at rheaharmsen.com

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