Nothing

A time for reflection

The past few weeks has been rather slow for work for me. So, I suppose that is why I could spend too much time here concocting and developing my poems and stories.  When I first started writing, less then a year ago, I didn't have a clue as to what to expect. I just assumed people would just be as people do in day to day lives, but there was a dimension I never  knew existed and how it changes the game.

In my real life, or the one in which I must earn a living, I am remiss. Not in my work or the task I am rewarded for but in my taxes for which I feel total contempt.  I see the waste, I see officers asleep in their cruisers behind strip malls, I see the party's of City officials, hell I have been to a few. No big deal, it is the way it is. Take it or leave it. Accept it or reject it.

Life is like a well served Chinese buffet, lots of choices, long line ups, and the empty warming tray the most desirable.

I run from chore to chore. Hoping to be the first to draw from the  empty warming tray, but it is all gone. I return to my table, devour what I have acquired and eyeball the buffet until I see my favorite dish replenished.

It is a sorry state, a comedy really as we parade about trying to capture a perfect moment, a perfect dish a perfect reflection of ourselves, only to realize the perfect reflection of ourselves doesn't exist. Nothing can satisfy our appetite for perfection because even perfection cannot overcome the human  weakness  to ignore  it.

Today I sat with plain bread in front of me at the kitchen table. My sons had assignments to complete at  the computer terminals in the basement. The sun was dim and I realized that I was not experiencing a single electronic device. I remembered two photos of old people. One photo was an old man with wrinkled gray skin and arthritic hands held in a prayer position giving thanks to his daily bread.  The other was an old woman doing the same thing, in the opposite direction.

I just sat there taking in the quietness, like a long lost friend, clasping my hands   together and just clearing my mind.