The Pond

 Photo of the pond owned/taken by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee

I'm like a pond ... my surface full of beauty ... sky, trees, flowers. I hide all that is sad in me ... beneath the surface. By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.

I look into the depths of the water

I see fish swimming below

Tadpoles of different sizes swim too

I saw the shadow of a turtle appear ... disappear

I sat down beside the pond to think

About how so much is below the water

Above the water I see all the beauty

Never seeing all beneath the surface

Only shadows of what is

Shadows that drift by as I watch

I think of myself ... grief ... happiness

Myself being the water in the pond

Myself as the pond

When you look at me you see the beauty

Of a good soul ... a sunshine smile

You never see what's below

Like the pond hiding all its wonders

Of what is ...what was

You never see the grief I feel every day

The invisible tears I shed

My smile, happy voice hides it all

As not to touch your life with my pain

Like the pond you can only see so far

Fish swimming happily along their way

A turtle drifts by ... tadpoles wiggle along

I smile because that's how I am ... like the pond

Note by this Author:

The pond fascinates me ... when I walk down to it I stand to see beneath the surface always looking for fish.  I watch to see what swims, drifts by.  I think a lot when I am at the pond ... compare it with how I feel.  No one ever knows what lies beneath the surface ... only what wants to come up to be seen is what you see ... just like me when I hide my pain, grief.  When you look at me ... you see what I want you to see ... on the surface you'll see a happy, sunshine smile even when I'm sad.  Why?  So as to not to touch your life with my pain.  When you come to read me ... you choose to walk in my world for just a time ... you choose to come read my pain ... without having to let me know you see it.  I hope somehow what you feel, think after reading all I've wrote ... could some day help in some way.  Maybe to see what a grieving mother goes through ... understand if you care about her.  Maybe ... a lot ... of things.  

Photo/poem owned/written by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee.