A cherita – a tragedy and a crime

A mother of seven suffers abdominal pains

A family entrust a loved one in the care of health professionals
health care providers who should care with respect 

Suffering woman wails and pleads
attendants curse and denigrate the patient
forever silence her with an overdose wrong meds

&&&

government officials offer their sympathy

Shocked, they fire one nurse and orderly pending investigation
Media probes the premier if he’ll admit existing  systemic racism

stubbornly shaking his head says, no
tsk tsk tsk, how can he fix a problem when in denial

&&&

seven children  and a husband grieve

a community of First Nations mourn together
Indigenous people raise their voices nationally

Sadly I sit,
Wrapped in despair and umpteen questions
Shaking my head, when will this ever end?

© Tournesol’2020-09-29

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/indigenous-woman-who-died-at-joliette-hospital-had-recorded-staffs-racist-comments

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/sante/2020-09-29/mort-d-une-femme-autochtone-a-joliette/une-infirmiere-qui-a-tenu-des-propos-racistes-congediee.php

unnecessary losses ~ Cherita

some changes can be embraced…over time

today I try to adapt to new gadgetry
feeling old and awkward, yet excited and giddy

some changes are not as welcomed
with heavy heart I grieve my mentor, my teacher, my advocate
yet, embrace our friendship that continues to flourish more each day

© Tournesol 2020/02/08

True beauty comes within(a cherita & memoirs) Daily reflections

How many more need to go? Who else will leave her on her own?

A friend once said, it is like being in an abusive relationship. Yes, sort of, but she sees it more as living in a huge family home with extended family…you know, moms, dads, grandparents, uncles, aunts and children which include all the siblings and cousins. (Most of the children are pretty consistent with their values but there is always a bad apple…un cousin de la fesse gauche sort of.

You get her drift? Nod twice if you do and stop reading if you don’t because if you don’t get it, the rest of this will be way way over your head.   You know, those who no longer know right from wrong or blinded with the public image and their vanity.

It is like living on a farm with many different houses…but ONLY the parents, grandparents and uncles and aunts run the show. Okay, there may be “in law” that can also poison the crops…this is possible.

Some of the adults were nice but most (not all) of the nice ones died and went to heaven. Now the evil ones remain because they thrive longer feeding on indifference, vanity, ambition and greed.

Fortunately, the children were raised in the back fields to fend on their own and the opposite is what they live which is compassion and selflessness. Their goal to be there for the younger siblings…to fend for them, be their voice and if they leave, they must find a stronger group to replace them and continue the war on crime between compassion and apathy and other battles between truth and deceit.

She thinks of the people she can count on and there are a few uncles and aunties that do “their godlike thing” in the shadows…being there to support the young so the true field (frontline) workers can have the tools to persevere. It is an important job…a “must do” job. She is still at “can do”…for now.

Life drops obstacles along your path but the challenge is to do the best you can while you are still in this vicinity and then leave. Your mark, your values and your inspiration will linger and continue help those remaining …giving them a model and this will go on and on and on …

Even if there are fewer and fewer, good souls do not have to change…you need not let the evil change you to be like them…when you find yourself slipping into moments of apathy and numbness, fickleness and weakness, then it is time to leave. Your goodness will still enrich the earth as the children till the soil in the backfields (front line) of the farm.

(A cherita ~ micropoetry)

From the bottom of the muddy waters, a lotus rose

Such delicate beauty shall not be defiled
Thick muck remains at the bottom of the pond

Strength stems from truth
Compassionate petals of perfection
Such real beauty is divine

© Tournesol ‘19/09/10

Daily Moments September 10. 2019

cousin de la fesse gauche: an expression meaning a cousin removed so many times, they are no longer really related.

saturday siesta [daily reflections Aug 17 2019 a cherita or two]

clouds weigh

waiting for that sudden gust
thunder showers

consumers rushing
a hundred beeps
unlock their cars

~

watching from my living room

chuckling like an old witch
dry as a bone

felines napping
Saturday afternoon
peaceful and calm

(c) Tournesol ’19/08/17

on letting go …a cherita and haiku

(a cherita)

piling into tired vessels

inequity tears the sails
weary canvas fails

sea engulfs each evil deed
greedy and voracious
quenched with every nightmare

~

aquarius moon so full and bright

beams light up the sea
watching ancient sins

sinking to dark depths
way beneath the sea
labroides feast

(haiku)

nightmares capsize
into the cold dark sea
death becomes them

(c) Tournesol ’19/08/15

 

Daily moments – reflections on letting go and change – August 15th, full moon

 

reflections ~ a cherita

A kilo or two of oversights 

Ten thousand grams of mortar 
Ten thousand grams of sand 
 
hundreds of buckets of dirty water 
Cleansing unforgiving sins 
Absolution weighed in stone 
 ~~~

People gathered with shredded tissues 
 
lip-syncing foreign prayers 
Mea culpa misunderstood 
 
A generation passed 
another cycle of life 
continues 

(c) Cheryl-Lynn '19/04/27
daily reflections April 27 2019

Daily reflections April 27 2019 a brick of guilt A Cherita

 
Missing two years of her life feels like an eternity 

Losing those first kisses and breaking curfew
Butterflies and broken hearts 
 
Can never recapture those years 
Guilt multiplied by a ten 
Remorse will weigh her to her grave 
 
~~~ 
 
Feeling her rage bubbling under-skin

Passive aggressive innuendos 
Violence escalates in overindulgence 
 
Never a confrontation 
Too scared to fess up and break in pieces 
Still ignoring that fucking elephant 

(c) Cheryl-Lynn  27/04/19
 
 

searching (a cherita)

napping

all this time searching
in my dreams

waking
to a blank
page

(c) Cheryl-Lynn’18

Solitary fuel A Cherita Daily Moments August 12 2018

Street Art, de Gaspé, Montréal, Qc. – Cheryl-Lynn

A Cherita

solitude is so misunderstood

many equate it to depression and loneliness
even if the person embraces her aloneness

so many people try to understand equating it sometimes to depression
but having not worn the same shoes
how can anyone really know?

*******

solitude is synonymous to emptiness, so why does it feed me?

solitude gives me energy
weathering another day

all consuming
yet nurturing
life simply goes on

(c) Cheryl-Lynn Roberts

August 12, 1018

Dear Emma, and a Cherita

Dear Emma,

When I was a child, I remember picking up my bellbottom pants at the dressmaker one time. In the early 60’s I could not find any kind of long pants or jeans that were long enough and slim enough. In those days, Marilyn Monroe was the fashionable shape. Although Twiggy was slowly becoming a trend, in my part of the world, it was still more common for women to be shorter and curvier. Alas, I was pretty much a straight line more like Olive Oil at between twelve and fourteen.

Another client was just leaving the dressmaker as I was entering and she asked me how my mother and grandmother were doing. Of course, I shared the latest updates on my newly divorced mother and lifesaver grandmother who had taken us in not realizing I may have been a bit too open. Being naïve, then, was just assuming that people always inquired about you because they cared.

I remember trying on the charcoal grey bellbottoms and was so excited they fit like a glove and were long enough to wear with a boot or higher healed show. That was the beauty of tailor made clothes. Fortunately, her fees were very reasonable and in fact, less expensive than going to a designer shop to purchase clothes.

As I was leaving, the dressmaker looked at me seriously and said, “You must be careful. You are such an open book and you never know the true intentions of people when inquiring about you and your family.” I could tell she was concerned for me and I always tried to remember her wise words, but still, it is still difficult for me to think anyone would want to hurt me intentionally. And so years went by and I learned the hard way. I find learning through life experience teaches more, don’t you? What have you learned better through experience rather than through teachings of another person?

( a cherita)

a child runs freely through the woods

Stumbling on hidden roots and branches
Scraping arms and knees along the way

Fastforward several decades
Walking through the woods, listening to the birds singing
Leaves rustling, she leans on her walking stick

© Cheryl-Lynn ‘18/09/06

Daily Moments with Emma – August 9th, 2018