Jennifer’s poem explores a premonition of a future morning, filled with warmth, new life, and healing, offering solace and hope in the present, exclusively for Different Truths.
I had been there before
as I poured my coffee
in the dim light of the stove
it felt oddly familiar
as I opened the fridge
to grab the milk
it clicked into place
another morning
half asleep
pouring my coffee
but it hadn’t happened yet
it was a pre-memory
of my future
but more real
than a dream
I had slept in
the barn last night–
the last night that
hadn’t yet occurred–
to welcome
the newest batch of kittens
wrapped in a quilt
with a fire on
to ward the December chill
and in the little kitchen
for nights like this
I’d poured a cup of coffee
and snuggled in
with the newborn kittens
to give their tired mom a break
they licked and sniffed
my ears and hair
their curiosity endearing
as I reached for a pen
and a notebook nearby
to catch a falling poem
about new life
and rebirth
and unseen possibilities
about gratitude
and connection
and life coming full circle
and as my heart awoke
with the gentle rising sun
I sipped coffee while they slept
and carried my new poem-memory
back to the past-present
for it was needed more there
now I can see
with newly risen eyes
mended heart at home in the future
and know that I will
truly be
okay again one day
Picture design by Anumita Roy
Jennifer Gurney, based in Colorado, teaches, paints, writes, and hikes. Her poems have appeared internationally in 11 books and won two contests. They have also been set to music, displayed on screens in Australia, printed in Washington, D.C., shared through the Rx Poetry project, and featured on a bus in Wisconsin. A lifelong writer, she says that at 62, joy and sorrow finally give her enough depth to write a decent poem now and then.
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