I sure hate this disease.

It’s called getting old and aged.

Aches and burning pains every joint

My toes, foot, ankle, knees, hips,

Shoulders, elbows, wrist and my knuckles

Constantly ache and burn

Anytime rainy weather comes near.

Yeh!  I really hate this disease,

This getting old and aged thing.

Why can’t I take some of that vigor

With that I had when I was 25?

That would really be nice, wouldn’t it?

Then this wretched disease I have

Wouldn’t be so tough on me on rainy days.

Gee!  I really hate this disease,

This getting old and aged that is.

 

When you have lost someone you truly love

How do you pick up the pieces of your life,

Handle the misery of being alone at night?

What do you do with a heart that won’t heal?

Where do you go to hide your terrible grief?

When will the hurt subside just a little?

What do you do with all those mementos?

Where do you keep them so that

They don’t reopen all those wounds?

Is it ever possible to actually forget?

Could you just reach inside your heart and

Tear out those endless memories of love?

Can you? I am asking for help from everywhere

Yet at night, and some times during the day,

The ache seems never to diminish at all.

Why couldn’t we have gone out together?

Will it always cut this deeply in my heart?

I am glad I have these long nights

When I can be alone to communicate

With my heart’s memories of her.

 

 

“You Liberal,” he sneered.

Suddenly I am tall,

For by my side they come

From far fields, distant climes:

Thomas Jefferson, author

Of the Declaration of Independence;

Thomas Paine, firebrand of freedom;

Madison, supporter of the Bill of Rights;

LaFayette, the French sophisticate;

Garibaldi, Bolivar, Father Hidalgo.

Oh, am I ever taller now.

There’s honest Abe, hand-in-hand

With Frederick Douglas, talking.

Here’s Teddy Roosevelt, glasses shining

And staying that axe from our trees.

How proud I am for these

And for F.D.R. and for social change

To come stand by my side.

“Liberal!” I gleefully shout

Plunging on, renewed in strength.

“Bring on your regressive thoughts.

 

For now I am truly ready.

A liberal, yes, a true liberal,

Finally a liberal, a liberal.

Hip, Hip, Hooray!”

 

Where have the brave ones gone

Who dared defend the weak and helpless

Huddled in fear shaped lumps of clay,

Waiting to be slaughtered one by one?

Do we die defending the faith,

Or stand by meekly, awaiting the lash?

Do you stand by as murdered dissidents

Defend liberty as a most precious jewel?

If you would be wholly free of fear,

You must risk life itself forever.

I can still hear the call of the loon

That most uncommon loon of the north.

When the moon rides high in the sky

And clouds go racing ahead of the wind,

A sound comes across those autumn lakes

That only the common loon can make.

It is as if nature is calling to its mate;

Or a lonely trapper is dreaming of love.

The haunting tremolo of sound strikes

The quiver of the heartstrings of men.

Sometimes in my lair above the city streets,

I seem to hear those loons flying south.

A picture forms of a special lake

Where the loon calls with hoots,

Tremolos and wails

As the fish leap and splash in the water.

Trees glow with the fluorescence of the moon,

While the Northern Lights flash across the sky.

I fall into a sweet-dream sleep

That ends too soon in the flush of dawn’s light.

Reluctantly, I rise to face reality.

 

 

 

Across a stream as wide as a boy’s arm,

Four young boys had piled rocks and stones;

Then added twigs, grass, mud and sand

To form a small dam nearly three feet high.

The muddied waters didn’t clear till dark,

But the boys were back right after dawn

Eager to test the water’s chill bite

As this April day was not yet Spring.

They were ready to jump in

When they saw that a band of watersnakes

Had staked their claim to this pool.

But the oldest boy knew that watersnakes

Were harmless, so they all jumped in

And splashed about so loud and hard

That those watersnakes just gave up

And moved on to find a quieter place.

Through all the aches and agonies,

I can still hear the calls—

The cheerfulness of fifes,

Drumbeats of the heart—

All calling the mind to mend.

There is a life ahead to live.

Somewhere someone waits patiently.

Seek, if you would, the trail.

The fog slowly settled, concealing the road.

Its ghostly white obliterating all about,

Holding in its soft, moist embrace

Sight of Earth’s most lovely vistas here.

A cluster of lights, shrouded by the fog

Slowly revealed in the faintest outline

A large white and gray modern structure.

The glowing, reddish sign high above,

Boldly declared this as the site of Crown Point.

Stopping to walk about, we went inside

Where we found ourselves in a quaint attractive dining room.

Ordering a slice of pie and coffee, which after

We carried outside to the veranda.

We sat there and cleaned our plates

Of every single scrap of that apple pie.

A lightness appeared in the heavy fog.

Now we could see the land drop off,

Exactly where that lightness first appeared.

The fog, lifting, like a giant curtain

Seemed to promise a precious gift of nature.

We walked to the edge of land, going slowly.

There before us, the fog opened

Like before a stage play revealing

A deep cliff.

Now unseen hands raised this curtain

Even higher.

Allowing us to see an awe inspiring sight.

The world about us seemed to pause

As if to emphasize what nature now presented.

Far, far below, a river broad and clear,

Opposite a cliff as the fog curtain climbed higher

Until the far cliff was as high as our own.

Quickly Mother Nature cleared away all the fog.

There before us, the gorgeous gorge

As green as green trees could make it.

The river far below, so clear and now lit up

As a shift of sunlight blazed across

As if heralding the opening act

Of Mother’s Nature’s play—

The beautiful vista of

The Columbia River Gorge.

Today I am no fit companion to anyone.

A cloud of pain and sorrow covers the sun

That lights up my life as I go slowly,

Across these lovely hills and valleys

To where we walked, these many years past.

Her her face and voice will be with me.

Perhaps my soul will find a bit of comfort

As it remembers moments to cherish.

 

Today, my sister left on a long, long journey

To a far place of no return, and

Never again shall I see her dear face.

Perhaps, someday, in some distant clime,

We may meet again as a family renewed.

Now the cloud of sorrow deepens as I

Grope for some small solace for my soul

To heal the wound that seared my heart

When Sis left for that far distant land.

 

 

#sisters

 

 

 

I walk across the land

Greeting one and all as we meet

As cousins, nephews or siblings,

Not by blood but by mutual choice:

Sharing dreams and common goals

With someone of a mutual love.

Sometimes, they have faces—

Pink, brown, sunburned, pallid, smooth.

Body shapes come thin, thick, tall, short,

Also in some strange combinations.

Oh, Cousins, Nephews, Brothers, Sisters,

May I never lose my humility in you.

 

#uninternationaldayoffriendship