The patient sat with a soft tissue wadded up and placed
between his closed left eye and his glasses after having
given himself a drop in the eye at the instruction of his
new ophthalmologist the old ophthalmologist having been

late to the party in discovering the glaucoma. In an hour
the man would put a different drop in the eye having learn-
ed from the physician’s assistant that he had been putting
in the drops in too close proximity something he didn’t

learn from the highly regarded new ophthalmologist who
had been in too big a hurry hurrying on to the next patient
to give the proper instructions on how to do the drops. And
then the ophthalmologist told the patient that the respons-

ibility for success or failure in curtailing the progress of the
disease had to do with how well the patient applies the drops
to the eye. The patient thought to himself that if the disease’s
progress is stopped in its tracks the physician would gladly

take credit for the success but if the progress is not slowed
or stopped and blindness ensues, the responsibility is com-
pletely in the hands (literally) of the patient. The patient want-
ed to say to the physician, “Why don’t you just take us out

back and shoot us now so you wouldn’t have to bother to
blame us later?” but he thought better of the idea and
just sat there as the ophthalmologist rose, gave the patient
a very firm handshake and made a quick getaway.

He was really respected and, actually, quite beloved in his community
and he carried himself well at all times with a quick wit and finely
honed sense of humor but never an intrusive personality, which is
something pretty hard to pull off but which seemed to come naturally

to him but what nobody knew was the unbelievably painful childhood
he had as an immigrant kid who was orphaned at age thirteen and
tossed from foster home to foster home, endured the depression,
went on the bum riding the rail from one coast to the other east to

west and back again and then, years later, it all went south for him.
His health failed and his business failed and failure screamed in his
ears as fate catching up with what was only right for the orphaned
kid and what else could he expect from such a life and his son said,

“Oh, dad, where are you when I need you so much?” And his dad,
then out of pain, perhaps for the first time in his hard life, was beyond
hearing his son’s cry and his son, having faced his own hardships and
personal demons, over time understood and just felt a profound sadness.

How do you take a stand
that you just know is right
when you know the stand
will not unite?
You do what you can
to keep the peace
while you take that stand
which, hopefully, eventually,
will unite
and, in the meantime,
hold on tight.

One part of the couple making
up the smallest quantity of

existence is aware of one
part of another couple also

making up the smallest quan-
tity of existence and not

only aware of but in com-
munication with and having

an impact on and being in-
fluenced by without any

known way of communicating —
telepathy, energy, minuscule

thought (?). And so I am
driven to reconsider prayer

and pray for healing for
all in spite of not having

communication outside of
prayer. If minuscule quarks

do as do giant Sequoia trees,
why not me and thee?

*idea from meditations by Richard Rohr

Life is all about love
and loss
and love again,
and then
it is all
about love
in the end,
which isn’t
an end at all,
but a fulfillment
of the promise
to eternal enthrall,
and so for this we
hold out hope
to survive the losses
and find a way to cope
until the end of our
earthly existence
when into God’s arms
we commend our spirit
to love without limit.

He wishes there had been
a canary in the coal mine
to warn him of loss in time,
but sudden loss came
and he was off
guard and caught
but love came to help
him attain what
Christ had wrought.

He was fifty-five when his heart gave out and he,
the sole proprietor of a small business, struggled
to keep things afloat but he, mixing metaphors,
only hitting on six and losing money when his
wife told him to sell the monument sales busi-
ness to the cemetery and go to work for them
thus gaining a salary and probably several more
years of life, didn’t do it, didn’t do the logical
thing and instead ended his life in utter desper-
ation, leaving a family blown apart trying to pick
up the pieces only to realize there weren’t many
pieces to pick up without him.

At a rally, the Temporary Occupant
misspoke, again, as he is wont to do.
He said he would protect “pre-existing
physicians.” I don’t know about any
other pre-existing physicians, but the
one I do know of — Jesus — certainly
doesn’t need the Occupant’s protection.
Of course, he meant “pre-existing
conditions” and he was a pre-existing
condition before being the Temporary
Occupant and that pre-existing condition
doesn’t need protecting and neither will
his post-existing (as temporary occupant)
condition need protecting as much as it
will need incarcerating.

They said it was from the old country
but they put it downstairs on the fake
mantel and he took it down and played
with it, twirling the hands round and
round and cranking the key until the
hands gave up the ghost and the Swedish
clock died an inglorious death and then
years later the boy, then man, wondered
why there wasn’t anything on the clock in
Swedish. Did they keep the real Swedish
clock upstairs away from his itching fingers?
He then had his introduction to “things
aren’t always as they seem,” even when
your parents tell you it is so.

He’s not a psychologist of cult mentality
But he wonders why sixty-million worship this personality —
A guy who lies when his mouth is open at all
And the cult believes that he is the Lord Of All.

Has our educational system failed
Our public and now we have trailed
Most other nations in ferreting out the truth?
How could we elect and follow someone so uncouth?

Obviously, cultists won’t change their minds
So getting out the vote is what we must find.
Call on the blacks, browns, reds and yellows
To show that our future is in colorful females and fellows.

Our hope is in truthful education
Supporting the founders of our Constitution.
With hard work and dedication to making us whole,
We will win this battle for our country’s soul.

Leaves have held tightly
to the branches swaying hard.
The Burning Bush glows.