Tag: divorce

Once Upon a Time*

Published on by J. Kelland Perry27 Comments

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Last week while I was sifting through old papers, I found this piece of writing from decades ago. Thankfully, we have all made peace since then . . .

Once upon a time, there was a girl from St. John’s.
At the age of fourteen,
she moved around the bay with her family.
She hated her curly hair,
adored her Persian cat,
and loved to get lost inside stories and songs.

When she grew older,
she fell in love and got married.
She was happy.
She had a beautiful little daughter.
Not long after,
she gave birth to a handsome son.
She liked to tease him and call him
her little “curly boy”
because he so much reminded her of herself.

A few times,
when she and the husband had terrible fights,
she had to take her girl and boy
to her parents’ house.
But the husband would always tell her
how sorry he was,
and she would go back because she loved him,
and wanted to believe him.

Eventually, she stopped believing.
She moved back to St. John’s
and started a new job and a new life.
She still had her beautiful daughter,
but she lost her curly-boy
to his dad.

She found someone
who reminded her of her love
for stories and songs.
She loves her cats,
still hates her curly hair, and
misses her son
with an ache that never goes away
and leaves her pillow wet with tears
every night.
Still, she knows
she is doing the only thing she can.

She hopes someday he will understand
how, once upon a time,
there was a girl from St. John’s
who couldn’t fight anymore,
and only wished for
a happily ever after.

~ Jennifer Kelland, 1995

picnic table in a winter garden

*Evergreen post from 2014

Friday Bouquet #11

Published on by J. Kelland Perry

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I’ve been following Elizabeth from Almost Spring nearly as long as I’ve been blogging. She writes eloquently as a woman blindsided when her husband leaves their marriage, and tells how her life is transforming from “We to Me.”

In her own words:

I am a 59-year-old woman surviving the pain of the collapse of my 37 year marriage that occurred suddenly through no choice of my own. I survived the first six months by living in today and enjoying the moments of a glorious summer.

…When that first summer ended, when the days became shorter, the mornings colder and I could see the winter approaching, I began to wonder how I would survive the darkness, the cold, the grey skies and the impending gloom of winter. Then I thought to myself – ‘why?’ It is almost spring… So too with my current life situation.”

I chose one of her posts from last month because it illustrates how far Elizabeth has come on her emotional journey. You might like to follow her too, if you’re in a similar situation. Click on the link below to read about her, and don’t forget to mention Jennifer sent you.

From Trauma to Transformation

Comments are disabled here in hopes you will visit and comment on her blog.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.
❤

*Image:Courtesy[StuartMiles]FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Once Upon a Time

Published on by J. Kelland Perry12 Comments

Last week, while I was sifting through old papers, I found this piece of writing from nearly twenty years ago. Thankfully, we have all made peace since then…

Once upon a time, there was a girl from St. John’s.
At the age of fourteen,
she moved around the bay with her family.
She hated her curly hair,
adored her Persian cat,
and loved to get lost inside stories and songs.

When she grew older,
she fell in love and got married.
She was happy.
She had a beautiful little daughter.
Not long after,
she gave birth to a handsome son.
She liked to tease him and call him
her little “curly boy”
because he so much reminded her of herself.

A few times,
when she and the husband had terrible fights,
she had to take her girl and boy
to her parents’ house.
But the husband would always tell her
how sorry he was,
and she would go back because she loved him,
and wanted to believe him.

Eventually, she stopped believing.
She moved back to St. John’s
and started a new job and a new life.
She still had her beautiful daughter,
but she lost her curly-boy
to his dad.

She found someone
who reminded her of her love
for stories and songs.
She loves her cats,
still hates her curly hair, and
misses her son
with an ache that never goes away
and leaves her pillow wet with tears
every night.
Still, she knows
she is doing the only thing she can.

She hopes someday he will understand
how, once upon a time,
there was a girl from St. John’s
who couldn’t fight anymore,
and only wished for
a happily ever after.

~ Jennifer Kelland, 1995

she remains

Published on by J. Kelland Perry12 Comments

grey winds freeze her heart
an ever-withering blight
cold memories linger
of  her recreant knight

brave dreams she had reached for
often misunderstood
blinding her intention
eclipsing any good

space between, polluted
by unrecoverable words
pregnant silence the only
sound you ever heard

you hurried its demise
you cannonballed through that
exhausted, so exhausted
until it all fell flat

no words for you now
from the lips you once kissed
love undone forever
by your traitorous fist

surviving the deluge
of hot tears that hurt
she keeps wearing the scars
like a comfortable shirt

when looking back on it
her battered soul aches
the curse of good memory
is all that it takes

those sepia snapshots
that fade in bright sun
no longer vivid
by a promise undone

you couldn’t erase her
though she’s twisted and bent
like a tuckamore tree
in the wind’s harsh lament

she is living, enduring,
on the edge she remains
to quash her forever
will take more than love’s stain