cloud
I could be scrubbing the ring from the bathtub, or sweeping up drifts of elm seeds in the basement stairwell. I could be organizing my finances or planning a setlist or running scales. I could be writing letters and thank you cards to my loved ones.
I could be composing a song; one based upon the many options that have come to mind and fill notebooks and voice memos. Ideas that – these days – stand a better chance of being forgotten than explored.
I could be searching for errant puzzle pieces under the couch (or worse) trying to locate them in the slice of unknown that exists below the sideboard — also known as the place where I sweep fallen hairs and Cheerios between visits from the vacuum.
But I am here, lying on a mattress from my great aunt’s pull-out couch. A mattress that is in lack of its life partner due to reupholstering. It is experiencing a rare separation from the union of HIDE-A-BED.
I let my mind go off leash.
I wonder if I am laying or lying.
I wonder why I’ve never been able to commit this usage of words to memory.
I wonder if calling this “rest” is lying to myself.
I wonder at how tremendously peaceful it feels to be in my white cotton nightie simply lying/laying in a rumpled heap of white sheets and white duvet and white pillows.
I picture myself and the mattress from afar, in their specific location of my building. We are melded as one, a single clumsy cumulus cloud gone astray and trapped by brick and plaster. We are a wonder in this quiet summer afternoon… before the centre of my universe, the son, rises from his nap. Before I am compelled to part with my cloud companion and blow about our home gathering items fit to entertain and mother.
Soon we’ll butter our skin with concoctions to protect ourselves from the sun.
Soon we’ll wear dark glasses and walk to the pool.
Soon there’ll be smiles and squeals and blue blue blue.
Soon my son will look to the sky, point his finger upwards and say in a bright voice, “Cloud!”
And I will laugh and remember:
Sun and cloud.
Mother and son.
upcoming shows
July 15
House Concert
Elbow, SK
August 24
Blue Note Park
Winnipeg, MB
w/ Slow Leaves
August 25
Moose N’ Fiddle Fest
Nestor Falls, ON
September 16
House Concert
Saskatoon, SK