With the daily news painting such a bleak picture every day, thought I’d throw some levity around with a piece of fantasy-style prosetry.
Future’s Game of Chance
So, Future…
You’ve obviously got a reason
for obscuring your unpredictable m.o. for us.
My bet is that the reason has a lot to do with
compassion versus malevolence.
Why?
Well, truth be told,
most of us think of tomorrow and beyond with anxiety
and a little bit of hope we’ll not run out of today. After all,
it’s still here. I’m still here. But, tomorrow?
Who knows but you, Future?
You’ve got your surprises ready to spring.
Impending sunset and sunrise.
Today and tomorrow.
Curtain rise and curtain fall kind of surprises.
Kinda weird, you know?
I mean, you’ve never properly introduced yourself,
even though we’re neighbors,
running into each other every day,
me, bright and early, standing on the corner like a doofus,
you dangling your grab bag of surprises,
allowing me my daily pick of one,
which seems unfair, you know?
I usually feel embarrassed and allow myself to be distracted.
Picking just one is hard, damn it!
So, old faithful me, here every day at my favorite meet-and-greet place.
Favorite ‘cause so much can happen at a cross-walk,
depending on my choice of your surprise-destiny.
Go left, right, step out, step back.
I bide my decision time watching old people mumbling,
feebly making their way across the street,
ever aware of the speeding cars
and children zooming by on skateboards,
scaring hell out of the senior-seniors, and me.
Today, my eye catches the pigeons pecking at bread crumbs,
spread about by a very old lady hunched over her walker
next to the hearse filled with flowers
parked curbside to the neighborhood gray church.
Jesus. That’s kinda on-the-nose, don’t you think Future?
I know. I know. I should.
But I don’t want to look to my left, or right.
Not today. Think I’ll find me a bench and wait out your next sunset.
It’s been a really good day so far, you know?
But, hey, thanks for your always dependable arrival.
There’s always tomorrow, if I'm lucky, right?
|
|
|
Love ya!
Jane
I just watched a movie, Reds, outlining the real-life love affair of two journalists and poets, Jack Reed and Elizabeth Bryant, from the turn of the 20th century, caught up in the political environment and living life like there was no tomorrow. When you find out how young they died, it can give you a perspective that the future is probably going to be much better for all of us. When we view real history the way that it is portrayed In Reds, with all the hardships people endured in those days, today looks like utopia.
Ron