...personal poetry...

when just livin' is enough
and i'm not getting paper cuts
from the rough edge of a list
of what i must do before i die--
recording goals i've hit
and dreams i've missed
on that hypothetical list.

i won't stand on the grass--
looking above--
watching my life pass over
like the clouds above
my head and shoulders.

i won't kick my life
aimlessly down the road
like a soda-pop can--
ricocheting on the pavement
and bouncing off the cement
until it momentarly stops--
until kicked again.

i won't ride my life in the car
of a secure and routed rollar-coaster--
planned drops and presupposed lifts--
popping up like bread out of a toaster.
screeching around each plotted bend
until the end
where i get out and wonder what's next.

i won't drop my life
off of the top of a science building--
placed in the egg-dropping apparatus
that a seventh grader's been building
(for their experiment testing
the function of both gravity
and velocity)--
a little bubble-wrap
to protect the shell,
the softest tissue
to protect the yoke--
OOPS! it broke--
(but at least i learned something).

i will be active and fluid,
open-minded and mindful--
won't be passive, over-zealous,
routed, or frivolous
with the life i've been givin'--
for just livin' is enough
(afterall, it's not that tough
being givin'
about an eighty year (or so) span
to do with what i can).
i'll smile fondly
at past memmories done--
smile contentedly at the present--
and smile anxiously
(but not over-anxiously)
at all the life to come.
i'll balance hopes, dreams, aspirations
in one hand,
and the reality of my ever-present
optimistic acceptence
of circumstance
in the other--
for just livin' is enough for me.