[the Writing of Kuypers]    [JanetKuypers.com]    [Bio]    [Poems]    [Prose]

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Dreams 1/28/07 (Seeing mom) 4/24/16 at Chicago’s 2016 Poetry Bomb at Bagdad Cemetery in Leander Texas (filmed with a Canon Power Shot camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem Dreams 1/28/07 (Seeing mom) 4/24/16 at Chicago’s 2016 Poetry Bomb at Bagdad Cemetery in Leander Texas (filmed with a Sony camera).

See YouTube video live 10/21/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Transcribing Dreams Three”, “People’s Rights Misunderstood” and “Dreams 01/28/07 (Seeing Mom)” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” at “Recycled Reads” open mic (Lumix).

See YouTube video live 10/21/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Transcribing Dreams Three”, “People’s Rights Misunder- stood” and “Dreams 01/28/07 (Seeing Mom)” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” at “Recycled Reads” open mic (Lumix; Cyan).

See YouTube video live 10/21/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Transcribing Dreams Three”, “People’s Rights Misunder- stood” and “Dreams 01/28/07 (Seeing Mom)” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” at “Recycled Reads” open mic (Lumix; Posterize).

See YouTube video live 10/21/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Transcribing Dreams Three”, “People’s Rights Misunder- stood” and “Dreams 01/28/07 (Seeing Mom)” from her book “When you Dream Tonight” at “Recycled Reads” open mic (Lumix; Threshold).

Dreams 01/28/07 (seeing mom) This is the strangest thing, I remember it vividly and I don’t like to think this way and I don’t want these things coming through in my dreams I’m going to see my father in Florida in a few weeks, and in my dream it was shortly before I was going to Florida to see my father when my sister called to tell me that she just found a great price for airplane tickets to Florida, so she was going to meet me there for a day or two and I told her it’s funny, I just heard that Aunt Sally was going to visit there too and I didn’t think much of Aunt Sally telling me this even though I don’t even think she has my phone number and I never see her and besides, I didn’t question why my dead mother’s sister was going to meet us at my dad’s house ### but the next thing I know is that I’m in Florida and I think everyone else was there too and there was music coming out of my dad’s house and I think here might have been a table in the driveway for snacks and people were meeting around our house, like we were hosting an outdoor party this hurts me so much to write this now but mom was there, alive she was sitting in a chair     kind of like how she’d sit in the driveway in a chair     for fifteen minutes to get some sun     I used to sit out in the driveway with her like that but she was there, sitting in a chair     probably because the chemo made he so tired     that when she had leukemia     she didn’t want to stand up well, she was there, and people were mingling and every once in a while someone would talk to her but you know, it wasn’t like everyone was amazed that she was alive, sitting there     this was just a party and no one seemed to say anything about mom and I was there for a few minutes and I saw at one point that she was sitting alone so I walked over to her and you know, it reminded me of when we saw my mom when she first found out she had breast cancer and the sisters were with dad in the front of the house figuring out where everyone could sleep when I went to mom and get serious and asked her how she was really doing and that’s when she cried and said she also has cervical cancer and she’s about to have surgery for a radical hysterectomy well you know, this moment reminded me of when I got serious and asked her how she was really doing and I couldn’t bear to ask her why she was there or how she was alive I know how anything would make my mom cry and I didn’t want to do that to her so I finally walked over to her she looked up at me all I could say was “I love you” and mom sounded like she was just about to cry and she said, “oh, don’t—” and that’s when I woke up. Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.