Dancing Against Time

Time beats constant rhythms,

On drums, not always in step;

The life we planned on dancing to,

Played future songs we’d not heard yet.

Often, we’re forced to remember

Friends or things we thought would last…

Sadly, looking back on them

As joys lost to our past.

A second chance is useless,

I tried to never let go…

My futile battles against the clock,

Defeated with less to show.

I often peruse memories,

They seem to cover infinity…

Taking eons to occur in time,

Yet now only seconds to see.

Tribute to a Third of Me

How does one memorialize a friend,

Who has shared 5 decades of your days?

One who never criticized you, still

Adopting a few of your ways?

I’d love to erect a statue,

The world should remember her name,

Her optimistic world view,

Elan and kindness deserve the fame.

Those Lazy Boy recliner days,

The Dick Van Dyke hours spent…

Camping at Lake Winnemucca;

Memories that never will relent.

I realized this tremendous loss,

All boils down to this…

You were a vital cog in my existence,

That I will forever miss.

Sometimes life is the coffee cup,

Left forgotten on the car roof.

In minutes, you are miles away,

The missing cup, the only truth.

Our lives erode unnoticed,

Like river banks that wash away.

The currents are unrelenting,

Sand bags and faith, keep naught at bay.

…

No Mulligan

On Christmas day, in ’95,

A seagull, lifeless in the snow,

Was laid before my fireplace,

In a box to thaw and grow.

I dreamed in error that morning,

Alive, flying about the room…

Was the rehabilitated seagull,

I had saved from winter’s doom.

Every day we harbor hope,

Life pencils draw an erasable line…

Like dances at the rest home’

Celebrating one last time.

Somedays we exhaust ourselves

Wondering just how we will die,

The truth is all that energy,

Needs to give tomorrow, one more try.

Often now, I compare myself,

To the dying seagull once again.

I’ve discovered in the game of life,

There is no mulligan.