Splintered Porch

Old wooden chair waits
on splintered porch boards
with the roof slouched
like Mother’s hand shading
her eyes from the afternoon sun.
A stray cat curls up
on the sun-bleached seat
until an autumn leaf twitches
its fur in settlement.

The cat leaps through a kicked-out hole
where light-reflecting eyes
stare in goose-bump shiver
while morning sparkles a blanket
of snow cushioning the chair seat
when nightfall freezes a drip’s
expectation of dripping
delayed until morning
when sun thaws a slender thread between
icicle and drip, and drop occurs.

Wooden chair waits…
a mother, a lighthouse mother,
lighting up when her child returns.