Owls and Orchids

I looked with eyes of wonder

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Wide with delight and awe

At all the new discoveries I made

With the start of each new dawn

Love and light surrounded me

Kept me safe and warm by turns

I learnt the ways of life and love

Through my parents eyes, hearts and hands

A childhood filled with glee and wonder

I’d live through it all once again.

As time slipped by my eyes grew round

With amazement, glee, then shock and horror

As life in all its intricacies

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Was laid bare before my feet

The chaos, hurt and cruelty

A police woman’s eyes must see

Yet love remained in sheltered places

In the eyes of sweet-smelling babes

Whose lives I cherished and nurtured

Through their own discovering years

Time slips by so swiftly

And eyes see more and more

Love sometimes leaves more scars behind

Than joy and laughter have been made.

Eyes grow wearied and tired

As pain and loneliness soar

And parents whose place is untarnished

Mum and Dad

Leave holes in your life as they go

Loneliness settles deep,

In heart and bone and soul

A bystander you find you’ve become

As your children take up adults reins

Then, without thought or warning

A miracle arrives beside you

In a pair of bright, loving hazel eyes

A life once thought lost and desiccated

Now blooms anew like youth

As loves great power enfolds them

And their garden, their life, flowers anew.

Beautiful Butterfly

© Susan Jamieson 2013