I Dreamed

I dreamed of a child,

the young boy that was me,

having a joy of the new,

and of all that could be.

He asked me to return,

to leave adult cares,

to leave a hardened heart,

to be silly - not put on airs.

Running and toys -
his most pressing thoughts,
or trucks and kites,
maybe baseballs and knights.
 

Too free for burdens,

too happy for concerns,

I found my younger heart,

Having awaited its return.

Now and Then

I found myself thinking...

The "now" that we attribute to the most current present-tense is, by reality, more of a range of time, a period. For no sooner does one express 'now' than that narrowly defined event become a moment in the past. The thing we call "now" is really some kind of wall between past and future.

 

Stats

It has become a trite, obligatory comment from naturalists and others with a stake in the les océans [Jacques Cousteau accent goes here], that one is more likely to be killed by [insert creature, like the overly used bees analogy, or an event, like the commonly referenced auto accident] than be attacked by a shark. This is unintentionally misleading because people are much more exposed to bees, so it follows that bee stings are a higher occurrence, plus vehicles are an intrinsic part of travel - with many (most?) people using motorized vehicles - many on a regular basis - so that would naturally be a higher occurrence than aquatic attacks as well. After all, even if one statistically isolates a population that spends a lot of time in the water (e.g. surfers), even that base set would demonstrate a small percentage of the time actually in the water. The stats commonly referenced do not make this distinction, but in fact, use extremely broad survey sets (e.g. all peoples, or all Americans, etc.). That would logically yield a very low number of shark incidents. At any rate, the intention here is just to add some clarity: the more often you swim in the oceans (especially in deeper waters), even though you are not on the regular menu, you are at a higher risk of becoming food - so, don't be too cavalier in such matters. 

A View From Above

I can only imagine how birds perceive the strange creatures that are humans: "Young ones, see those creatures? That is Man. They build covered nests on the ground. They rest in them at night and in the day they move around inside some strange moving shells (which are often barely moving) over hard surfaces they make on the Earth. They only have feathers on their heads (most of them), so they cover most of their bodies with some other feathers, or fir, in different colors, and they even have some kind of covering on their feet. They do not migrate in the cold days, but stay with their regular nests and add extra feathers for warmth. Some of them keep a nest with an enemy of our kind, the cat, but usually these cats are kept inside the man's nest and only watch us. Beware the male sons of man,  especially the young, for they may take pleasure in killing our kind with rocks or their loud sticks (which make birds bleed and die).  Man cannot fly, but many of them move around the heavens in giant, noisy, shiny birds.  Some of them play games on fields where there is kicking and throwing, and hitting small round things and many other of their kind seem to like or need to watch this."

A Husband's Goodbye

I wrote this for a man who was with his wife at the final hours preceding her death

Beloved mate,

this old life's clothes,

you'll soon discard,

my devoted rose.

Your fight was valiant, but it has come to an end,

my child’s mother,

grammy,

and my best friend.

Don’t be worried by the way you appear,

just remnants of the years
and pain you had to bear.

Now on this bed you await,
lying in repose,

and all I see is my beautiful young betrothed.

You won't suffer again,

my love, my wife,

you'll be amongst the living,

with no tears and no strife.

I’m not far behind,

we will live again,

and walk once more, my partner, my friend.

We will laugh and run,

we will dance and sing,

in the land of love,

in the presence of a King.

This is not a goodbye,

but a brief so-long,

till we make our reunion,

and sing a new song.