Dues We Pay

Today will not lay down
Before you,
It is a gamble –
Turning cards, rolling dice;
There is a cost, a sacrifice…
You may have paid yesterday,
Or the price can come due tomorrow –
But whatever it is, anything you do,
The bill will be in the box demanding
Your hours spent making currency
Of your life, who you have become
Who you will grow further to be.
Smile,
Yes, smile,
Let go the doubt that troubles,
Even as you are, others too must be,
All are transcribing signals –
Determining how to be happy in
The constraints of our humanity.
As you stand before your mirror
Bless the image you see,
Recognize you belong,
A part of everything:
Snow-melt off the mountains,
Sunlight baking asphalt,
Electricity coursing through the wires,
Dogs barking erratically,
Grass growing until mown –
You are past, present, and futurity.

Who?

An owl flies over,
Again, my love, screeching, “Who?”
Do you have the question’s answers?
Sometimes
I do, others – the illusions, there
Is nothing to say;
I fail.
Knowing myself –
My soul resembles all the books
In all the libraries;
Without taking them, one by one,
Reading every page
The stories grow dusty, old,
The language begins to fade –
Knowledge withers; it never
Unfolds.
I believed when youth bloomed,
By now, I would know myself;
Exposed by this uncanny fowl
I recognize I have not grasped
Tools needed to understand life,
Even less, who I am – only –
Endless
Queries, abysmally pointless.
Every person posed similarly
An interview to take some time,
A chance of investing themselves with,
“Who?”
At present, I know why
I wish, “Who?”
To better myself, know the whole of me,
Never forgetting how I love you.

Life Applied

Doubt drives, boring a hole, through
The midst of dedicated lives searching
For fortunate answers, viable ideas,
Told in the harmony of truths,
Caught fast in the discord of loss.
We can open ourselves –
Gift one another with reality
Wash deception away with positivity
Discover the best of who we are –
Building value into each heart, soul.
Dancing as we are joyful,
Hugging when we need support,
Facing our dragons together,
Rising like Phoenixes from the ashes
Where nearly slain, we conquered pain.
No weapons fatal required, but reason,
Wisdom studied, prepared, applied,
Freely shared to light a path through
Spaces inhabited by shades of darkness
Securing the light of generosity, kindness,
Love to every area, corner, portion,
All quarters where precious humanity
In gorgeous beauty survives on Earth.

Doggy Discourses

I talk to my dogs
As if they give good advice,
But somehow it seems
Answers always spring live from
Inside me, friends, or technology.
My dogs provide such
Diversion of my division
I can almost decide
They are oracles sent with
Unique provision and blessing.
A cover story
For crazed habits of talk,
Talking to myself, answering,
Sometimes I need virtuoso advice,
Dogs, mine, ink in the blanks.
Living all alone,
By myself, on my lonesome own,
My dogs remind me
Of care when I would hideaway
Disengage, abandon society.
Tribble and Wookie, with clarity
Encourage me to explore
Beyond space, outside our front door;
They maybe understand
I have become a shadow cast present
From the glories of the discontinued past,
But my girls are entirely unwilling
To give me up, let me fade, they love me,
As well as doggy beings, hearts, minds may,
It helps me keep going every day.

Life – Window Panes

The grass, sky, trees are
Without us freely growing,
Notice we rarely give to
What they might require,
They are and will always be.
What about creatures such as
Are we? Constantly complicating
Everything we are becoming
And who we were before;
Wanting, needing, asking more.

Dogs know life, it loves them,
Such diversity, specialization,
A wolf in all the lines, blood,
Hunger, thirst, making puppies,
Eliminating, sleeping to while away
Moments remembering tomorrow
With bright eyes, attentive ears, floppy,
Wagging tails, living life, dogs prevail.

Here we doubt all there is, even
What is not, we place puzzles to
Cause confusion, misinterpreting
The illusions we support as fact;
Looking forward, facing focused back.
No one knows because the power –
Within us is scaled down, rerouted,
To that which we cannot comprehend
Not visible, beyond the touch of hands.
Ideas espoused, but unreflected in
The materials arrayed before us;
The grass, sky, trees – integrity, love, life.

Prompt: Create something commenting on life from diverse angles, brought together in completion.