2010/08/16 Safe Embrace Poem by Margaret Alice

For the first time in ages we used the time
we had to ourselves, I enjoyed lying in your
lap, a lovely massage, you claimed if you were
an Eskimo in a frozen land your people would
have died out, you do not like to brave the cold

As the weather warms we have some fun, I love
a good back-rub, if I can beat the cat and the dog
to your lap, you are too much in demand, also have
to contend with Nici and Tiaan, if they get there first
I cannot claim my place - at least when we are in bed

I hook my leg over yours and hold you tight, when strange
dreams mar my sleep and I grow scared, you are always
there, the few times we are separate I cannot sleep at all
awake all night as if I had eaten a million slices of bread:
last night Willem brought me nine koeksisters

In a stainless steel glass as the fierce ladies in charge
refused to give him a whole packet for himself – by the
way, they were good, but not as delicious as those made
by grandma Alice – yet I slept well, safe in your embrace:
when I first met you, I thought you were an angel

Today I am even more convinced than before of your super-
natural powers - grandma Alice used to thank you over and
over for taking good care of me, she saw something no-one
else saw: The angelic sign over your face, the bright aura
of your being, she knew without a doubt

You would take care of her granddaughter who needed grandma
Alice to take care of her when she stayed in a flat all by herself -
in the end you took care of my dad also – another person who
thrived under the care of my grandma…