my rosebud

I climbed
closer to the water's edge
kerplopping briefly into the pond
before setting myself to rights
flopped on a glistening big, wet boulder

where I kicked off my sandals
and wiggled my toes,
in younger breaths,
and dreamy heaven-knows
of wind and sky and pool and earth;

when my glance chanced upon
a child’s footprints – bare –
dancing in the mud
around me.

and I smiled
at the flood of feeling
they recalled,
to my reflective rest.

happy little footprints;
happy memories:

my rosebud . . . I guess. 

note:  In the movie Citizen Kane, when Charles Foster Kane (a wealthy publisher) dies, he utters the word "rosebud".  A reporter named Thompson, endeavors to find the meaning that “Rosebud” held for Kane by interviewing his friends and associates – but is unable to find the answer.  The movie ends with workers burning some of Kane’s possessions and one of them throws an old child’s sled, with the word "Rosebud" painted on it, into the fire.   

photo:  Reflecting Pool – W. Bourke 

© 2013 Wendy Bourke