“Time’s practical joke, miss me please?” by Geoffrey L. McLam, St. Albans
Serene happiness
garnered not without
the gentle caring
that goes along with
considering one’s self
Feeling folly
at the possibility of dying
20 years before i potentially
could.
That’s 20, twenty years too soon. That’s a full 20 years where i could speak to my sister… tell her the usual and, maybe more pointedly, the unusual.
Not to mention gems of friends
i’ve cultivated relationships
with… i miss them already.
My inner fortress rusting and
getting primarily dusted from
lack of attentive seriousness
at these very daunting facts.
Feeling restless sadness
at the real possibility
of my symptoms getting worse.
I think of that elder warrior,
almost slain in the movie
Gladiator, by Maximus…
blood running from his mouth
as he knelt in pain.
Live every moment like it is your
last… well yes… alas; those
moments should not be rushed,
but for me, they are.
I ponder the white winter
day outside my window
searching for solace, hoping
for time’s practical joke
to miss me, most entirely.
***
“To secret places go” by Laura Lee Saorsa Smith, Marshfield
When the world is at its darkest not because of nightfall
When the fires of rage are burning and we are feeling ever so small
When the pain of merely living becomes too great to bear
To secret places go and I will meet you there
When tears of sorrow have turned your heat to desert dust
Leaving behind but a withered, shallow crust
When the world takes on a monochromatic hue
And checking out is all there is left to do
Please, if you will, to secret places go
It is the safest of places that I know
Gardens rich, a wild growing
Elves, dwarves, and gnomes knowing
An innocence of a time long past
A safe haven for a moment to last
Human fatalities have we
Temporary admittance to the land fairie
Existing there are realms other than here
Believe; hold close your belief in them most dear
There are beautiful worlds of light, I know
When it’s darkest here, to secret places go