En-theos

Her zeal for life was a gleam
her aura carried at birth,
and as she grew,
a trait she fostered as habit.
Eager, ever, for what was next.
She danced through life
in her cloak of confidence,
enthusiastically alive.
From the Greek en-theos, my mother

was ‘possessed by the divine.’
The gods, often not sweet or soft,
were always full of fervor.
When she declared
that she had no regrets,
I heard it as, No mistakes,
My young eyes guessed
that humility comes hard
for those with the ardor of gods.

Now I think she meant
she refused to second-guess her choices.
Marie stood by her own strong self
and never held back in fear.
Peppy, she called the attribute
I saw as bursting liveliness.
Now, like a shooting star,
her absence has left
a striking trail of fire in my sky.

©Susa Silvermarie 2023