Guest Post: On a 40th Birthday by C. Streetlights

My dear friend C. Streetlights, author of Tea and Madness, joins us again this week, this time sharing one of her beautiful poems. I love her words. Enjoy!

I remember the freckled-faced sunshine girl
(always smiling,
always laughing-eyed)
calling over my cinder-block fence
my shyness turning to the sun,
to the bells that twinkled
with
feet that dropped to bricks.

I remember the fear I felt
(it being there,
always my companion)
when I entered the pool, cold
water wrapping around me,
then plums falling from
the nowhere sky,
and
slowly sink like treasure.

Golden hair followed,
(the only time,
she never was a follower)
diving for her tree’s
pirated and purpled gold,
she
patiently lured me into swimming.

Always the same story,
(silly fights,
sometimes, rarely)
fearlessness came in shades of
golden-yellow/freckled happy.
Coaxing fragile courage from where
I hid it,
under a porch, or in an attic.
No matter.

I knew this girl once,
who
(really never knew what
no Body ever does)
could jump the fence like
fairy tales jump a moon
who
didn’t realize she was
lightning in a bottle for some
who
is still the laughing-eyed girl
who
I’ll remember as
my childhood friend.

__________________________________________________________

After writing and illustrating her first bestseller in second grade, “The Lovely Unicorn”, C. Streetlights took 20 years to decide if she wanted to continue writing. In the time known as growing up she became a teacher, a wife, and mother. Retired from teaching, C. Streetlights now lives with her family in the mountains along with their dog that eats Kleenex. Her memoir, Tea and Madness, won honorable mention for memoir in the Los Angeles Book Fair (2016) and is available for purchase on Amazon.

C. Streetlights is represented by Lisa Hagan Books and published by Shadow Teams NYC. For all press interviews and other inquiries, please contact Ms. Hagan directly.

You can connect with C. Streetlights on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon Author Central, LinkedIn, and Goodreads.