Category: Life

When And Ever

The relationship with
Time is unreliable,
Past invades present
Without an invitation
Giving no hint or warning.
Although sometimes things
Crop up like pleasant hauntings,
Others much darker.
Living in the stream wavers,
Unfolds personality.
Thoughts flinch in passing –
Some neglected on arrival,
Superstitious fear,
If held, could these manifest?
Clear concentration, be blest.
Treasures run away
Appear again in vision,
Maybe now gain, claim,
The mystery retains charm
What comes, comes, as it will, still.
The search, clarity,
Love is the treasure, fullest
Measure of life lived
Whether past, present, future,
All is in sharing, caring.
Time unravels
Pieces everywhere, chasing
Forever in fog
Blindfolded except when free
Accorded chances to see.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Prompt: Expound on your relationship with time.

Swim

Standing at the edge
Of the river known as Life
Looking across it,
To the other side where dreams
Dear held, challenging reside.

Procrastination,
Doubt, fear of failure, aside
A toe in the stream,
So cold, vast, daunting, lonely
No bridge, boat; must cross alone.

Wading in deeper
Knowing there is no return
To this place, safety,
Embarking; bottom falling
Away from hesitant feet.

Beyond all limits
Pulled under the water’s flow
Finding the way up
Blessed air, more determined
Swimming like a manatee.

Nothing hurried now
Building passage with each stroke
In the depths, courage
Must be found to reach those grounds
Where all good things may be found.

It is the journey
Building every needed strength
Which allows success
In each endeavor given
As Life becomes love engaged.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

A VERY OLD BOOK

Riffing off an Amazon review title, I so propitiously encountered.

A VERY OLD BOOK

Reader beware, herein lie
Monsters of dastardly mien,
You may be captured, captivated,
Made prisoner for the space
Of these many pages.
I would not read it were I you,
I did not, in truth, finding its words
Many syllabic, poetic, strange
To my modern eyes and sensibility.
It seemed akin to Dickens, Emerson,
Perhaps Poe and Thoreau, whom
I thought all left in the distant past
When what I read was for lessons,
Not for pleasurable entertainment
Initiated on my fancy whim or choice.
No, dear reader, hear, hear,
This tome is best left shoved
To the back of the shelf, covered
In ages, layers of sooty dust,
Let it be, let it lie, you have no need
Of it, nor would ever I, it is a burden
To be left without perusal alone.
Do not open the covers, do not see,
What treasures I could not ascertain,
Join me in my startling refrain
This is a VERY OLD BOOK,
Herein lie dastardly monsters
Of highly developed vocabulary,
Read At Your Own Dire Risk.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Tuesday

It was an interesting day my friends. It started early, so I stayed up all night.

I went to the Ford dealership and got the reset I hoped and prayed for without having to pay.

The Explorer did not pass emissions. I was informed if I drove fifty miles at 55, it would likely pass later. (Have you gone 55 on an expressway lately? I felt like I was sitting still.)

Before trekking off, I stopped at Chick-Fil-A (Also known as God’s Chicken Place) for brunch. I sat there in an empty dining room, reading the NYT on my phone and crying over the news. Get your Covid shot, everyone.

The manager at BAM was my friend, so I stopped at the mall. I walked through Dillards and was accosted by a dress of Scarlett O’Hara Curtain Dress GREEN. A salesperson and I discussed it: beautiful design, but all out of my budget. If only!

My friend no longer works at the book store, but the staff knows me, so we chatted. I managed to leave without buying anything. (This is an incredible accomplishment for me, especially since the latest by Stephen King tried to wend a way into my hands.)

I drove to my hometown. I stopped and photographed my “Church in the Wildwood” and the Little White Church on the Hill. Both of these had hosted weddings of mine. I also stopped by the house I was buying when my world skidded into the deep.

The trip had not run up fifty miles, so I got back on the expressway and headed in the opposite direction. Everything on the road passed me. The trucks that appeared to have eating my rear bumper as their appetizer in mind, were a bit frightening.

When I returned to my home exit, I stopped at my cellular provider because my phone did not do data well, nor phone service. The young lady said she probably could not help. A male customer had just cursed her out for the same issue with the same make and model phone. I apologized to her for his nastiness. I asked her to try anyway. She did, and her fix was great.

I ate an early dinner of a green burrito, which cost $1.34 at Del Taco. Then I went back to get emissions done again. One of my club friends was there, and we talked. He has been going through a lot, and I tried to console him. Seeing him was like an angelic intervention. I was so happy. The Explorer passed emissions.

I went back and told the young lady that her fix worked fine on my cellphone. I told her not to let anyone else treat her disrespectfully.

I drove home and almost could not enter my house for Maui. All the dogs let me know their overwhelming displeasure with my being gone. I walked the three, and the day settled back towards normalcy.

Maybe that all seems ordinary, but I rarely go out and rarely encounter so many beautiful humans.

Be kind. Love is why all of us are here. People are precious treasures. You are included.

© Jo Ann J.A. Jordan