The Sub-urban Hum

The sub-urbs, are not less urban, by any means (we have 'our own' Bed-Bath n Beyond, and Target, and a Whole Foods.)
Suburbs are just more peaceful, that's all.

The city-dweller's buzz is gone from the mind, and the quiet of a loosely connected set of houses wafts through.
Apartments in the city lack space.....closet space at least.
Houses in the burbs are spaces galore....spaces enclosed in walls, called square footage, and spaces flowing unbound from front yard, to back yard, to driveways, to tree-lined inner roads, to sparsely filled neighborhood parks.

Trees stand tall, and available, in full glory here.
Browning, pale, feeble leaves flutter to the ground, and stay there till raked into a mulch-bag by the big forky rake.

The lawn mower roars, in some yard, every morning.
Grass shines a verdant smile....there are not many mani-pedi stores here, but the green grass gets cropped every week.

I haven't seen many people, though I have looked into the big black eyes of many a does by now, and have had an umpteen lady bugs and beetles walk on my sandals kept outside to dry.
The rains have pounded on rooftops, whose symphony of pitter-patter I now hear....being closer to the roof, not sequestered on an ivory tower of a high rise, along the Hudson.

My kids : They don't now have to wait turns to run their fingers through washed, sanitized, uniformly fine and grey sand in an elevated sand-box.
They just run bare feet on soil full of worms, seeds and maybe deer and bird poo.
Their voices echo through the still empty rooms of the house, as does the sound of their footsteps stomping constantly up and down the wooden stairs.
And then they jam on the piano, croon to the highest pitch, squeal like never before, and clap with full gusto,
and their dad doesn't have to holler, "Hush...the neighbors will wake up."

We don't hear the neighbors, and we hope they don't hear us.
It's all quiet here, except the whistling of the winds sweeping through the lush canopies of the small, and big trees.

 




  

In Anticipation of Spring

There is still snow on the road side, 
It used to be pure white,
But it now has innumerable specks of dirt.
It is snow still, in mounds.
But mounds that are slowly and softly melting.
And I know that Spring is about to knock.

There is a forecast of snowfall, for the weekend. 
We still need those caps, and mittens, and long boots. 
But now, I can see that the sunlight is a tad yellower.
And that the day stretches just a few more hours before darkness.
And I know that Spring is about to knock.

The Winter began a long, long time ago, 
Or so it seems.
We have since lined in full length coats and furry caps outside Walmart on Boxing Day,
We have since skied down several slopes.
We have picked, praised and plucked away Christmas trees.
We have shoveled heaps of snow from our driveways,
And we have marveled at the fanciful reality of the 'Polar Vortex'.
But now, I can breathe that the air feels less weighed down,
And I can see that the patches of green grass peep from under the slush of snow,
And I know that Spring is about to knock.

Little One---Sweet One

My Dear Second Born,
           My all-the-time companion at home, my one word for all things 'cute', my one entity for all things irresistibly edible, there is so little I have written about you, for you, or recorded on films of you. You are the second in line of birth, but just as much a number one priority as the one who first made me a mom. Time was flying by even with just one of you around, and now with the two of you?----well, it is zooming off.....you girls are growing up, and growing up so fast. And you...littlest one? Well, it took your older sibling a full 4 and a half years of life, to call me a 'Meanie' (no not Minnie--like the cute mouse...but MEANIE--like 'U R MEAN')......and you.....you are not even all of 3 years of age, and you have called me MEANIE almost five times a day for a while now! You, little lady, are growing up too fast. You are attempting all things 'big kid', because you want to be that big sibling--that role model of yours. She sings, you sing, she holds a pretend mike to her mouth and pretend croons a number like a rock star, and you do exactly that...and in your size...those antics....simply DO make you a rockstar! If she laughs out loud, you do that too, and if she cries, I am surprised how you succeed in producing tears too! You love her, We love you, We love you both, and you are simply tooooooo adorable.

We know you two are similar in so many ways, but what is remarkable is that despite the same gene pool and the same environment, you two are so different too, in so many ways. And that is what we love about you two.....between you two, we feel we have seen it all.....you gals are indeed the embodiment of the world for us.

It is a pretty severe winter on the East coast this time.....every week oodles of snow gets dumped on us, and the Hudson freezes, and temperatures dip, and we humans become unidentifiable under layers and layers of clothing and caps and mittens and boots. And then you ride along, on the stroller, bundled up in a warm sack, only your face popping out. You in that striped hat with two bobbing pom-poms for ears...that warm hat I bought long before you arrived. Your sister wore that hat, and looked just as cute, and surprisingly some people still remember that hat from those times. And yes, you look just like her, and in those moments, for just those split seconds, we go back to times of the past...just then. Otherwise, you girls are the galloping ponies, speeding our chariot at full speed forward. Slow down we cannot, you will not let us.....so we are in for the ride......tally ho!

With love,
The Happiest Person on Earth---a mom!