(Poem 366 for 2024 – I am writing a poem a day)

2024 was a difficult year,
made all the more difficult
by losing my grandmother,
who was one of the people
I would commiserate with
about all the challenges.

It started off with a bang
at 3am on New Year’s Day
with taking my husband
to the emergency room
for a kidney stone.

I spent more time this year in doctor
offices, hospitals, or watching
my grandchildren so my daughter
could be by a hospital bedside
than I care to even try to tabulate.

This will not be a list of my woes,
nor a lesson in counting my blessings.
I do not have the energy for either
right now because I am recovering
from some sort of upper respiratory
infection that has caused me to end
my year in a rather puny state.

This is simply an acknowledgement
that 2024 was hard—painful—and I
am eager to begin anew with fresh
perspective and a sober heart
to love, create, empathize, meditate,
pray, read, sleep, live, learn, and grow.

@Home Studio – 366th poem of the year