Ryan Jessup

A Letter to My Mother in Midsummer

waking again into another morning late in the thick and burning air of July the dog days of summer in the South I look out the window at the monarchs clinging to the butterfly bushes on the hill while hearing Don Henley's The Heart of the Matter one of your all-time favorites playing on the radio and I think about when you came to visit me in college that summer after you and Dad had separated when you bought the album that held this song and we listened to it after you had helped clean my apartment and had prepared a home-cooked meal for us and I begin to feel now such love and appreciation for you as I fly around in my mind hugging the blossoming times that we shared as I grew from child to man the times that live and return only in our memory O bless you my dear lovely mother may you forever be happy

O colorful wings
I would like to give you
a good morning kiss