Archive for the ‘Creative Writing’ Category
Proximity
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I remember when we used to hug
and shake hands
even though I can’t remember
the last time I did either
despite the best hopes
for some version of successfully eating out
it is getting harder
to visualize how restauranting
will ever again work for all participants
in some new form of normal
all from that invisible virus
that kills more people
than morgues have space for
while unknown numbers
present no symptoms at all
and we can’t tell who has it
from who already may have had it
from who will get it next
and masks scare some folks
while angering way too many others
and the earth doesn’t seem to notice
people are pandemic-ing to and fro
as it unleashes new hurricanes
fires, and tornado
and fire-tornados
as if everything was still normal
I remember when we didn’t worry
about shaking hands and giving hugs
but I really struggle trying to remember
what it was like
to be unconcerned about proximity
to everyone else
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Just Wondering
What would really happen if I didn’t listen to the sales pitch of every slick promotion? What if I didn’t have an answer for every question that I could possibly imagine? What if wearing a face mask in public was easy to do? Oh, wait. I know the answer to that one.
I wonder how many businesses, especially restaurants, will never reopen again after the shutdowns. Are we on the verge of economic calamity, or not? It’s hard to conceive of how much worse it will get before it starts to get better.
Does anyone really question the fact there are “haves” and “have nots?” In the face of that, think about how many times we can find ourselves a member of either one of those two designations for a variety of given situations.
Nothing is so simple that it can’t be seen in more than one way. There is nuance in everything.
I am pondering the possible difference in amount of work required if we would have cut the growth in our empty paddocks sooner and more often, versus waiting until now, when the growth is tall, thick, and laborious to bring down.
I am using the trimmer to provide plenty of clearance around our fences in order to simplify mowing the rest of it with the brush cutter behind the diesel tractor.
All the while, I am remembering how the horses were easily able to keep growth in these spaces reduced to almost nonexistent.
We could have horses and all the work that comes with caring for them or we have unbelievable growth of grass and weeds that I need to mow.
Honestly, we definitely prefer to have horses.
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Barreling
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one thing
after another
and another again
each challenge making things harder
than they already were before
robbing sleep in the wee small hours
returning it without warning
at the least of appropriate times
holding the wheel of an automobile
barreling down the two-lane
not quite close enough to home
asking the universe
for a sign
indicating the worst
is NOT what’s yet to come
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Emotions
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in a glimpse
between love and anguish
hot tears
of mixed emotions
witness to it all
lifetimes of repetition
a war to end all wars
which failed to end any
facile progress
careening haphazardly
in multiple wrong directions
following our own tracks
right back to where we started
laughing in the face of terror
refusing to be fooled
when endings start to begin
right in the middle of everything
carefully failing to notice
the veil
behind which
we always hide
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Relative Something 