by Paula R. Hilton

Clouds clear. Sky
turns blue as Dad’s
eyes. He and I,
eye-to-eye. Tossing
a ball. Good to be
ten again. Perpetual
present is everything
I crave. Now at the
airport, husband leans
in. One more kiss,
tenderest, before we
part. Light changes.
Moments slip. Memory
makes eighteen-year-old
son newborn. Savouring
sweet baby breath on my
neck. Cradling a sacred
being who was inside me
longer than he’d yet been
out. Tick tock of clocks
meaningless. At daughter’s
piano recital, she plays a
piece she wrote at seven,
‘Middle of the Universe’.
Everyone I love in the centre
of mine. At any given second
we fall together through time.

Paula R. Hilton | paularhilton.com| facebook.com/author.paularhilton |  Instagram: @paula.r.hilton

Paula R. Hilton explores the ways even the smallest moments show us what it is to be human. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from the University of New Orleans. Her fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in Dear Damsels, Feminine Collective, The Sunlight Press, The Tulane Review, Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, Writing In A Woman’s Voice and on NPR’s This I Believe website. Hilton’s debut novel, Little Miss Chaos, received the Kirkus star for books of exceptional merit. The novel was also a short-listed finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition and selected as a Best Indie Teen Read by Kirkus. She lives in Florida with her husband, son and daughter.