I always liked to ride the bus and train –
it gave me time in movement but alone,
without the need to drive or to maintain
a vehicle, the schedule foreknown.
My solo transits were my private zone,
where I could read and write and shift my gears.
I ride again, amid diminished fears.
(Rhyme Royal)
For 14 months, I had to wear a mask
whenever I encountered someone strange
on walks or if engaged in any task
outside my own address. The recent change
in health advice expands my willing range
and happiness – I’m walking feeling free.
Relief and comfort are my ecstasy.
(Rhyme Royal)
The Hasids were a splinter group at first,
who added song and dance – so I was taught –
but grew in time so rigid, now they’re cursed
with viral ignorance and magic thought.
I see in Protestants a simile.
The radical reflected in their name
has paled into a grim conformity –
whatever they are now is not the same.
I try not to be bigoted, and yet,
I must confess I’m viewing with dismay
the “Willa Cather people” whom I met
when I was young and didn’t have a say
in schoolbooks. Simple answers aren’t smart,
but I think WASPs are faulty, in my heart.
Today’s a new experience for me.
I’ve been so fortunate to reach this age
without till now the grim necessity
to meet a team about a loved one’s care.
At 2 p.m. my bro and I will see
the therapists and docs who treat our mom.
She’s on the verge of her mortality –
how near or far the rim no one can gauge,
but we’re prepared to meet extremity.
(Magic 9)
No resolution ever worked for me.
I mean, I’ve made some changes now and then,
but never were they triggered verbally,
supported by a rite, or sealed Amen.
And May the 5th was never naturally
occasion for commemorating when
an oath is made. But I’ll try, tongue in cheek,
to voice around another way to speak.
(Ottava Rima)
So even if the questions aren’t skewed,
and even when results are honestly
reported, the conclusions must be viewed
as only pertinent to massive groups.
Statistics just apply to magnitude –
when stuck on individuals, they fade.
But managed health care seems to go for crude –
applying big statistics onto me
is not the way good remedy’s pursued.
(Magic 9)
I know a computer programmer,
who turned himself into a scammer.
But truly the fact’s
he’s no good at syntax,
and now the dude’s bound for the slammer.
My best friend leaves me,
busy at what she loved most.
She exits laughing.
My parents were the youngest of their sibs.
My dad had older sisters (numbered four).
For Mom there’s near nine years between the cribs
her sister and herself were put in. Sure
I have some cousins, but they’re all those years
ahead of what my mom and dad produced.
And too we moved away. We had no near
extended family around our roost.
So I have sixteen cousins to recall,
and I possess some memories of meals
and visits, yet the fact is they’re a small
and quiet engine powering no wheels.
But now that Mom, their only auntie, shrinks,
I’m calling them and we’re refreshing links.
The moment I awoke I raised the blind
as usual, to garden-start the day.
My vision snagged on novelty – the kind
I can’t ignore and don’t adore. What’s new
is just a mat outside a door, designed
to clash with every natural garden hue.
The neighbors picked hot pinkish tones combined,
that promise to show dirt, to fade, to fray,
and make me wonder that they have in mind.
(Magic 9)
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