Grandma’s Friendship Bench
My name is Jamie Lee Hamann and I started sharing poetry articles back in 2013. Every year I share a poem a day in April.
Grandma’s Friendship Bench
No one listens as well as Grandma’s do
even seasoned therapists fall short of
how Grandma associates herself love
and how the Grandma bench began and grew.
A large community of the anxious
now lived under the trees and local parks
outside their tents a tethered dog soon barks
to rap upon the neighborhood’s conscience.
With not enough therapists in the State
to sit with them and calm their frenzy down
Grandmother's took a stand to volunteer.
These Grandmothers would sit and test their fate
or their ability to turn on frown
or try to remove deeper buried fear.
A little anxiety mixed with angst
to turn a community on its head
and then add days where people are not fed
so much opportunity gone to waste.
An experiment here from overseas
with trained local Grandmas here on the scene
on benches in the parks they painted green
just Grandma waiting patiently to please.
Such simple solution to the problem
a return to our deep family feelings
to lose anxiety in Grannie’s smile.
The power of just sitting with Grandmum
like Silver and Gold spent in our dealings
to make up time and sit for a long while.
Can we fight depression and suicide
with modern medicine or with a shot
when numbers point at a worrying lot
with Mental Health Professional’s hands tied?
Then blessings from an unexpected source
a chance for Grandmothers to leave the house
with training sit with hurt and then espouse
an appropriate therapeutic course.
When need for answers to a problem push
the hands of players training hard to help
to find a successful solution quick,
we find human connections will ambush,
that Grandma knew us since we were a welp
and made us chicken soup when we were sick.
In past we searched for electricity
a modern world with modern lifestyle choice
we may have softened, muted, family voice
but science cannot offer how to be.
Instead of pushing forward we should stop
to breath and see what we already have
we need to remember the ones we love.
We need our Grandmothers to ease the shock
to remind us their is always a fresh start
let’s bring our families stories back from lore.
© 2020 Jamie Lee Hamann