Dogs barking,
Roosters crowing,
Hens clucking.
Goats bleating,
Horses blowing,
Pigs oinking.
Bees buzzing,
Birds chirping,
Cats mewing.
Ducks quacking,
Brim splashing,
Frogs croaking.
Old men coughing,
Old women rocking,
Babies wailing,
Young men calling,
Young women singing,
Children laughing.
All declaring life,
L i f e,
L i f e!
Cerita M. Hewett
February 2014
I put lipstick on at a red light
For the first time today.
Always before I’d wondered how a woman,
Could drive and apply lipstick.
Sitting beside or behind cars,
I’d watched women flick
Open gold or silver tubes,
Gracefully arch their necks
To see their reflection
In rearview mirrors,
Deftly draw red cylinders
Across the upper and lower lips,
Softly with heads turned slightly to the right,
Rub those lips together,
Arch again to observe how precisely
They had rosied their lips.
When the light turned green,
Blaring horns declared the need to
Move on through the intersection.
Sometimes I smiled smugly at this ritual,
Thinking how this vanity was so embedded,
Automatic in some women’s lives,
Wondering why they didn’t groom
Before leaving home.
Today at sixty,
Late and in a hurry,
I put lipstick on at a red light,
For the first time,
And someone honked.
Cerita M. Hewett
1988
I slept
In the black darkness,
While the Living Water fell
Upon the tired faces
Of the many colored pansies,
Washing the dust from every flower and
Leaving their velvet texture softly glowing
In the early morning sunlight.
I woke to see them
Growing beside the sodden pathway,
Where iridescent insects come to
Drink sweet nectar and
Find shelter
Beneath outstretched arms.
Cerita M. Hewett
2006
Jumping, jumping, jumping,
On a trampoline,
One, two , three, children
Falling down,
Legs and arms all tangled,
Getting up!
Jumping, falling, laughing,
Getting up!
Jumping, falling, resting
Still and quiet,
Looking at clouds,
Getting up!
Jumping, jumping, jumping,
Me too.
Cerita M. Hewett
About 1989
Drinking in Spring using a thimble was so limiting
That I tried a teacup,
And then a large bucket.
Even then it was difficult
To savor all the greens in the forest,
Yet still sip up the flowers along the roadside,
Who whispered, “sample me.”
So Spring sang her special song,
And spread her banquet of beauty,
For all Texans to taste,
But you will need a wash tub at least!
Cerita M. Hewett
April 11, 2013
The small black capped Phoebe birds have started
Feeding their five babies
On our front porch.
Fly out, guard, fly out, guard, fly out, guard!
The Mama and the Papa take turns
Flying out for food far away from the nest many times each day,
And quietly guarding the babies from the top of the step ladder.
Of course they cannot fly out and guard at the same time,
Their work in tandem provides both exercise and rest,
Wisely they accomplish the daunting task of family care giving,
Without completely exhausting both parents each day.
Cerita M. Hewett
March 2013
The huge pine tree
Will easily hold
More than one nest.
It is large enough
For several nests.
Please build there
Not on the front porch!
Cerita M. Hewett
March 2015
Get up! Getup!
You sleepy head,
Hop up, bound up,
Jump out of bed.
The day has come,
The night has fled,
So spring up, leap up
And show your head!
Cerita M. Hewett
April 14, 2015
The two of us sat at the large conference table,
Ate fried chicken and cold slaw,
Talked over the day’s events,
Your piano work, my office challenges.
From the overhead windows
The late afternoon sun filtered down,
Shining over our supper,
Lighting our conversation.
Laughing from the freshness of
That half hour together,
We cleaned up the plastic spoons,
And paper plates.
No longer tired
I returned to my computer. . .
Glad you came.
When the wind ruffled the bird’s feathers
She turned to face the wind,
And hunched down a little to seem smaller,
But she didn’t fly this time,
She stayed facing the onslaught,
Steady on her perch,
Determined to hold her own,
‘Til the storm blew itself out.
Cerita Hewett
April 9, 2015