Poetry

Strange how life

Changes in such a short amount of time.

Technology and medical services

Are so advanced

We can know our diagnosis quicker.

Yet even that

Doesn’t stop the shock and horror.

Cape versus cloak.

Bell bottoms as opposed to skinny jeans.

Plaid or pastel?

Which is better

Is determined by opinion.

This opinion is made popular

By certain magazines.

I somehow doubt

They’ll ever make loincloths

A popular piece of clothing.

When circumstances

Obligate you to a chore

You would not wish upon anyone else

Sometimes all you end up doing

Is watching that someone

Try to get better

And finding yourself

Not able to do anything for them.

So instead you turn your attention

To other chores

Which need to be done

But are not as useful.

Tasks need to be done.

Someone has to do them.

Jobs that are not pleasant.

To those who do them

I thank you.

Not of our doing.

Forced into the situation.

Best to make do

With what we got.

Be grateful for what we have.

At least we have each other.

Strange how

Until it happens

To you

It is fine.

Like car accidents

Or getting cancer.

Putting yourself

In that situation

Never gives you the full picture

Because in the back of your mind

There is the whisper

“It’s not me this happening to!”

Things aren’t always what they seem.

A sniffle here.

A cough there.

Headaches and then nausea.

Body begins to hurt

As the throat scratches out it’s voice.

Sickness has arrived

But who is it?

A simple fever?

Or the deadliest new strain?

Alice had it right.

Run after the rabbit.

Fall down the hole.

Everything is changing.

We change too.

Too big or too small

We learn to change through it all.

As scary as it is

Change will always happen.

Can you see the opportunity in the wonder if it all?

Lips chapped.

Wind scoured face.

Drenched hair.

The walk this morning

shows promise for the wild seeds

planted randomly

last fall.

Be one of the crowd.

Do the honor of inconspicuous.

Who are you but another face.

Unknown.

Unseen.

Unheard.

Is your life damned by others?

Those unblinking eyes do not see you?

You are not worthy of their attention

and so you remain anonymous

and merely one more number.