I understand the satisfaction felt
in ordering the playing cards from hand
to winning solitaire. I watch. I melt.
I understand.
He’s 5 years old, and softly he’ll demand
no auto-finish. From the moment dealt
he wants array the way the maker planned.
He hosts some chaos underneath his belt,
but shows a mind for order logic-spanned:
creative, drawn to balance, pattern-dwelt.
I understand.
An idiot savant is somewhat wise.
A child can perceive what many won’t.
A moron might be hired to advise.
It’s more a case of wherefore than of don’t.
Cognition comes in any type of form.
Insanity is rarely absolute.
And as for nailing down a useful norm,
the field’s too mobbed – no vision’s that acute.
My father had in his declining years
occasional hallucinating views
that offered a perspective which appears
both then and after kindness. Don’t accuse
divergence, or discard its value now.
Perhaps it holds the recipe for how.
Concluding I had too much on my plate,
on rising I eliminated some.
The temperature was up, I had a date
for lunch, and I was feeling kind of numb.
But 90 minutes later, so much freight
had been cleared off I couldn’t feel a crumb.
Surprised, I gravitated to the mat,
in movement like a morning acrobat.
I bought my cottage 18 years ago.
I fancied its seclusion and the site –
it nestles in a corner and there grow
out front varieties of green delight.
There’s peace and quiet here till recently.
The boundaries by which my place is tucked
now sport construction close as it can be.
The future of my quiet may be fucked.
But I don’t advocate no ADUs,
and I’ve lost hearing in the upper range.
Perhaps as I mature it won’t abuse
serenity to acclimate to change.
So far the look and sound of new’s okay.
Adjustment may be in my aging sway.
I must have bought too soon. Each apricot
I ate last month was like a tease to me.
The color was inviting, but I got
in flavor an imperfect quality.
The velvet skin and golden tone was not
an indication of sweet pungency.
It took until July for nature’s call;
I brought 10 home and promptly ate them all.
I certainly don’t want us to return
to good-old-days when children weren’t heard,
and women knew their place and couldn’t earn,
and Master was a titulary word.
Of mental health we then had much to learn,
but consciousness can generate absurd
degrees of understanding and excuse,
cascading into empathy abuse.
A dozen years ago, I put the reins
and office ownership into his hands.
Though time and he have changed it, he maintains
a waning practice. And he understands
enough to earn enough to compensate
himself, another, me for daily call
and half a day there, when I allocate
my effort to preventing someone’s fall.
Diversifying Tuesday so, I heard
his plan to close it in a year and sighed.
To say I’ll miss the labor is absurd,
but I then realized I’d miss him beside
me talking. We devised a new technique –
no matter what, we’ll still lunch once a week.
Whenever I in speech appreciate
a day off after office work or kids,
my interlocutor is bound to state
that nothing in my circumstance forbids
devoting nearly every day to me.
And that was even true ere I retired –
my busyness is picked deliberately;
by diverse occupation I’m inspired.
My words the other day must have revealed
how tiresome her non-advice is, yet
my saying such relief will be concealed
henceforth, was never offered as a threat.
For sure it was no anger that she heard;
her tending so combative is absurd.
My mother never taught me anything
I valued. She suppressed my every ask,
regaled with superstitions, couldn’t bring
herself to laughter, ever in a task
or planning more, and even facing death,
the only lesson I derive is not
to mimic her. I will not waste a breath
on gripes. I’ll take the best approach I’ve got.
I’ll ape instead the dog I lived with long:
to use what works and work around the rest.
I’ll self-survey, exert when I feel strong,
and sink to nap whenever that seems best.
I’m grateful for what’s functioning today,
and patient irksome pain may fade away.
An ordinary Tuesday afternoon
except for an appointment down the street,
I walked six blocks, arrived a little soon
and then sat down with whom I chose to meet.
Our business took an hour to complete.
I thanked the banker and reversed my stroll.
The ambience above the broad concrete
was cool in nose and soft upon my soul.
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