To my Mother's sun-faded Sketchers on the back steps of my childhood home | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Relationships

To my Mother's sun-faded Sketchers on the back steps of my childhood home

Last week, I wrote about the wonders of slam poetry. This week, I thought I'd try my hand at writing one that might someday be performed.

39
To my Mother's sun-faded Sketchers on the back steps of my childhood home

To my mother's sun-faded sketchers on the back steps of my childhood home:

My father mows the lawn in the backyard and I spectate from beside you. I sit on steps that have seen many tears, many fights, many of my mother's signature campfires in the pit right off the patio. The pit is turned over, and has been for a few years now. My father wipes sweat from his brow and pushes on, insistent on finishing the job even if it's disgustingly humid outside. He drives the blades over the patio, maneuvering the rusted table and chairs set, a green paint-chipped Christmas tree holder, and the grill my mother and I got him for his birthday years ago.

He lets go of the lawn mower for a brief moment to adjust the table as to better have access to the weeds and grass protruding through the stone plates. I point and laugh at the lawn mower that is now moving on its own toward the pathway leading to the side gate.

"It's running away!" I say.

My dad shakes his head and jokingly blames, "perpetual motion," the phrase for the currently unharnessed motion of bodies which continues indefinitely. As someone who was never very good with science-y things, I do not understand what he means. So, I later put on my invisible lab coat and ask him to indulge my questions.

"You start something and inertia will continue to carry it," my father explains. "It is an avalanche that will never stop. For instance, if life were perpetual motion, you would never die. Perpetual love is a love that never dies. It doesn't exist."

The more realistic version of this is kinetic and potential energy from what I understand. Like perpetual motion, inertia will start something, but it will eventually stop moving. However, there is always potential for it to move again.

When I was younger, my mother would make fun of this commercial with the catch phrase, "A body at rest tends to stay at rest, while a body in motion tends to stay in motion."

You, sun faded sketchers, have been at rest since the summer of 2016. You, weighted by rain and not a body, have no purpose other than to be yet another headstone in the graveyard of things my mother left behind. I wonder what the word is for something that will never move again if not "death."

October 24, 2016 was the day she moved out. She still has not stopped moving away.

As we drive over the bridge into Sayreville on our way to our new, forever home, I look up at the sparse, torn cotton ball clouds in their infinite sky and wonder if things ever really stop, and I think to myself that perpetual motion exists generally. In theory, I will only ever see something for how it is in that moment. The universe and I have a very surface relationship in this way. For example, I recently went to North Carolina and as I saw small trading posts on the sides of the long, winding roads, I thought about how even when I am not here, these will still be here. You can go to New York City and sit in the middle of Times Square and the next day, when you're not there, people will still be walking/running/sprinting/rushing somewhere.

It is in this way that my arts mind interprets perpetual motion. The clouds that I saw while crossing the bridge will never stop floating. The planets that I've been fascinated with since I was a child will never stop turning. Butterflies that I have met will always land on flowers and dance on pockets of air into our hands. People in general will never stop living and dying and moving on to other things, other moments and joys and heartbreaks and illnesses and loves. In theory, love and hate will possess people indefinitely like specters longing to relive hat they've had before.

In theory, moms will stay and continue to nurture the fruit of their garden even if some fruit rots, even if there are too many weeds, even if she thinks the upkeep of her garden is much more work than she initially planned.

I am still trying to convince myself that not all gardeners abandon their plants and move on to live a barren life, that not all mothers leave. My mother's cloud body will follow me forever, but you, sun faded sketchers, are still empty.

"If you can capture and use perpetual motion, you'll be rich!" My father says to me.

"I've always had a fear of becoming like my mother," I think to myself. "Maybe I'll leave the inventing up to her."

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Featured

15 Mind-Bending Riddles

Hopefully they will make you laugh.

180314
 Ilistrated image of the planet and images of questions
StableDiffusion

I've been super busy lately with school work, studying, etc. Besides the fact that I do nothing but AP chemistry and AP economics, I constantly think of stupid questions that are almost impossible to answer. So, maybe you could answer them for me, and if not then we can both wonder what the answers to these 15 questions could be.

Keep Reading...Show less
Entertainment

Most Epic Aurora Borealis Photos: October 2024

As if May wasn't enough, a truly spectacular Northern Lights show lit up the sky on Oct. 10, 2024

7350
stunning aurora borealis display over a forest of trees and lake
StableDiffusion

From sea to shining sea, the United States was uniquely positioned for an incredible Aurora Borealis display on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, going into Friday, Oct. 11.

It was the second time this year after an historic geomagnetic storm in May 2024. Those Northern Lights were visible in Europe and North America, just like this latest rendition.

Keep Reading...Show less
 silhouette of a woman on the beach at sunrise
StableDiffusion

Content warning: This article contains descriptions of suicide/suicidal thoughts.

When you are feeling down, please know that there are many reasons to keep living.

Keep Reading...Show less
Relationships

Power of Love Letters

I don't think I say it enough...

452549
Illistrated image of a letter with 2 red hearts
StableDiffusion

To My Loving Boyfriend,

  • Thank you for all that you do for me
  • Thank you for working through disagreements with me
  • Thank you for always supporting me
  • I appreciate you more than words can express
  • You have helped me grow and become a better person
  • I can't wait to see where life takes us next
  • I promise to cherish every moment with you
  • Thank you for being my best friend and confidante
  • I love you and everything you do

To start off, here's something I don't say nearly enough: thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You do so much for me that I can't even put into words how much I appreciate everything you do - and have done - for me over the course of our relationship so far. While every couple has their fair share of tiffs and disagreements, thank you for getting through all of them with me and making us a better couple at the other end. With any argument, we don't just throw in the towel and say we're done, but we work towards a solution that puts us in a greater place each day. Thank you for always working with me and never giving up on us.

Keep Reading...Show less
Lifestyle

11 Signs You Grew Up In Hauppauge, NY

Because no one ever really leaves.

23318
Map of Hauppauge, New York
Google

Ah, yes, good old Hauppauge. We are that town in the dead center of Long Island that barely anyone knows how to pronounce unless they're from the town itself or live in a nearby area. Hauppauge is home to people of all kinds. We always have new families joining the community but honestly, the majority of the town is filled with people who never leave (high school alumni) and elders who have raised their kids here. Around the town, there are some just some landmarks and places that only the people of Hauppauge will ever understand the importance or even the annoyance of.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments