Chatting To My Best Friend Poem by Diana van den Berg

It’s such fun to chat to you,
about this and that -
and that and this -
and to ask you for things
and explain why I am asking
although I know
you know
anyway,
but it’s fun to explain
to you
and you have never
told me
that I talk too much
and you always have time to listen.
It’s also such fun
to speak to you about your gifts to me.

And, talking about your gifts to me,
there is Tania, my firstborn,
even though, as you know, my dear friend, God,
she has barely spoken to me
in twenty years
and the best she can come up with is that
I wasn’t there for her –
I brought her and her younger brother up alone
from when she was four and he was one
when divorce was the only solution
and I adored them both
and did the best I could for them
and introduced them
to as many things that matter
as I could
and they loved them all,
but sadly
that doesn’t count with her
any more.
As you know, dear God,
I have always been there for my daughter
and always will,
no matter whether she sees it or not
in case she decides one day
that a mother can come in handy.

Then there is my son, Chris
of whom I am so proud,
on whom the community relies,
who wears his integrity
inside and out
who has his father’s
and his mother’s
and his own
sense of humour
and who
from early childhood,
had wisdom and skill
way beyond his years,
and could fix almost anything
with his hands,
his brain,
his advice,
his heart.

Recent gifts of yours, my dear friend, God,
were all those miracles for
our Earth Angel, Linda,
and thank you for her wonderful spirit
which has inspired us
and healed her
and, of course, our Linda.
We are so lucky –
no, we are so blessed -
to have her at Pip
and in our hearts.

Then, there is your gift
of a constant heartful
of all the fur-babies,
I ever, ever had,
from Woofie, the very first –
I have a photo of him
on my tricycle -
to my today-babies, Benji and Cleo
whom Flicka and Tigger and Daisy,
my ache-babies,
sent me on the last day of last year.
Fur-babies are my breath
and my hope
and what we share
is reciprocal, unconditional and unlimited love.
They are my smiles,
my health,
my contentment,
my joy,
my laughter,
my solace,
my peace,
from the inside out
and are my friends,
my house-children,
my confidantes.

But then, dear God,
you know all this –
yet you let me babble on
because you know I enjoy
saying it all,
and feeling it all
in the process.
You know my joys
my tears
my fears
my passions
my secrets
my craving to learn
more and more
about all things under the sun
how mysteries beg me to solve them
how challenges dare me to overcome them
how, like Hannibal, I love it when a plan comes together.

Well, God, I daresay, I had better get back to work,
today being Wednesday when I am at home
and I have an even more jampacked day
than at work.

Thanks for the chat. We’ll talk again soon.

(9 March 2011)