Esteemed Sirs, all Honorable Ladies -
the artist asked me to pose
and he chose all the clothes
and the hat
and he made me stand there behind a frame
And he was serious
but he asked me to smile
and then asked me to have a smaller smile
not too broad, just a smile between not smiling and smiling
and he said these things with such seriousness
And he said not to stand like an animal in a cage
but to come forward in the frame
and to put my hands ever so casually on the frame

And he said, keep glowing and he said this with all seriousness
and when he did smile
it was like between not smiling and smiling
as if he were posing for me
And he was drawing and drawing
and then he had a break
and I had something to eat and drink in the kitchen
and then I was back behind the frame
and he took several days  

And I thought what a serious man this was, this artist
And when he had finished, he asked me to look
and I thought it was a lovely picture of me
And then I realized how playful this artist was, how clever -
putting me in a frame, as if we lived our lives in a frame
And then he had the canvas put in frame
so there’s frame within frame –
and I laughed then to see how
much humor the artist had, though he had worked with
such earnestness, such grave countenance –
I’ve been framed! Ha, ha…now I wonder often,
if we do not actually live our lives within a frame,
each one of us confined in frames…

Now This Piece of Wordplay’s...
Gonna Speak On Frames...

But Has NOTHING To Do...
With A... Snooker Game... !!!

Or Where Pictures Are Placed...
To Make Them Look GREAT... !!!

The Frames That I Speak Of...
Go A LONG WAY BEYOND............
THAT Kind of Stuff... !!!!!

Like The Frame of Mind...
That You Have To Find...
To Write Great Rhymes...
Like The Kind That I...
Now Sit And Write... !!!

About How... Frames...
Can Be What... SHAPES...

EXACTLY How It Is....
That You Choose To Live...

And Who It Is That You Pick...
To Have RELATIONS With... !!!

It’s A Funny Old Thing...
When You Really THINK... !!!

Because It’s Just A Word...

But When It Is OBSERVED... !!!

Can Prove To DISTURB...
The CALMEST of Nerves... !!!

When Frames ENCASE...
MORE Than Your Brain... !!!

You See THAT’S A Frame...
Where Going INSANE... !!!

ISN’T Far Away...
From Where You Stay...
And Choose To Lay... !!!

It’s A DANGEROUS Place... !!!

When Being Framed...
Can... “LOCK Away”...
A DERANGED Mind State... !!!

Or... Leave You To Face....
The Type Of Court Case...
Where Police Accusations...
Bear... NO RELATION...
To What Is... TRUE... !?!

EVEN WHEN There Are Clues...
That Provide CLEAR PROOF...

That Police Have Played...
The... Framing Game...

To Convict By The Use...
of FRAUDULENT Moves... !!!

You See Frames Are DEEP... !!!

And REALLY Do Reach...
WAY BEYOND The Beach... !!!

And Indeed Can Feed...
........ HUMANITY.......

In Various Ways...
That AREN’T Always GREAT...
Like... BEAUTIFUL Lakes... !!!

Because Frames EXIST...
In A LOT of Things...
From Home To Abroad...
Frames Create ACCORDS...
As Well As... WARS...

And That’s For SURE... !!!

They’re A POWERFUL Force... !!!
That SHOULDN’T Be Ignored... !!!

As I Said... BEFORE...
When It Comes To The Law...
And Those Who ENFORCE... !!!

And What About The Frame...
Where Politicians ROAR...
In The Commons And Lords... ?!?

Because I’m Really NOT SURE...
What They’re Roaring For... ?!?

Is The Frame That They’re In...
Really Worth ANYTHING... !?!

To Those In The Frame...
of The Modern Slave...
Who Works EVERYDAY...
For A Paltry Wage... ?!?

While These Heads of State...
Try To Make The Case...
That Their Policies Frame...
A Way For Them...
To Avail MORE PAY...

When What They Relate...
RARELY EVER Demonstrates...
That What They CLAIM...
In The Things That They Say...
Are Things In The Frame...
Or... REALMS of TRUTH... !!!

That... Help To Improve...
How Society Moves... !!!!!!!

Because To My Mind...
What They Frame Are LIES... !!!

Pretty Much... ALL THE TIME... !!!!!

Which I Guess Is WHY... ?
Within Human Kind...
SO MANY... Try...
To... Hide Behind...

The Frame of Deceit...
And Of Course DENIAL...

Well My Frame DEFINES...
An... HONEST Guy... !!!
Who NO LONGER Has Time... !!!

To Join The Frame...
of Those Who Play Games...
With OTHER Peoples’ Lives... !!!

Because They LIKE To Play...
With... Peoples’ Brains...

In Ways That Are...
... INCREDIBLY LAME... !!!

It’s Such A SHAME...
That... ALL They Do...
Is Make FRAUDULENT CLAIMS...

That Prove That They...
Really Have NO SHAME...

Which Is Why These Days...
The Decision I’ve Made...
Is To Keep These People...
OUT of My Head Space... !!!

As Well As The Place...
That I Have Made...
That Keeps Me SANE... !!!

And Now Is The Name...
of This Poetic Wordplay...

That Is Simply Called.........

....... “ FRAME “.......

It was a plainly written script offering little explanation into the intricacies of life after death.

To quote

"For every new beginning there is a new ending"

Perplexed, I took it upon myself to attempt to explain such vagueness in a way only a poet can.

What follows is to be known as:

The Prime Covenant

As I stand on the thresholds of death
I can see the landscape of my life
Spread out against the horizon in frames
Within one I see my birth
Kicking and screaming as I met the light
(Curious because, in life, this moment was fast forgotten following the burst of new experience)
To take in the sights of my mother
So proud to have her only child
That she clung to me through joyful tears
Then my fresh eyes caught my father
Shaken to the core after experiencing
The recreation of his own birth
For I was like him and he was as me
(In between all these new wonders rose my first breath, which was so sweet that even the frame of the memory shuddered from excitement)
Through it all I see the memory of love
That can only be found in lifes first moment

From the corner of my peripherals
A new frame caught my eye
Where I stood for the first time
Following months of incessant beckoning
From my parents to abandon the crawl
That had led me away from infancy
Flashes of fear and pure joy mingled together
Leading to my first step
Which led to another
To another
So rapidly I couldn't control the momentum
FREEDOM!
And then I was running
(The fastest toddler alive if you ask my father)
My legs taking me far and wide to explore
The wide world around me as the frame shifted

Orienting itself into a picture of me
And my first favorite tree
A magnolia standing taller than any God
A child could hope to fathom
But also small enough a mountain
To not stay my freshly found love of movement
Until I was at the top
Looking down at a world wider than comprehension
As flicks of terror stained the frame red
When the screams of my mother
Snapped me back to the reality
That I was a toddler in a tree
My tree

Driven away by panic the frames spun forward
Like that button on old school casset players
Comprised of two sideways triangles
Where every frame appeared frozen
While also moving
Until I sickened of the pace and settled
On a frame seemingly dark
(Bits of angry red and sad grey completing the new patina)
That revealed a new memory of forgotten times
A time where tears prevailed for all accounted
There stood my father, frozen in the door
(The screen partially open to allow his head to poke through)
And my mother, hand on my arm in a vice
Incoherent through sobs of lost love
As she dragged me away from the door
My arms flailing as I made a futile effort
To reconnect the two
...just two more steps...
Then I was in the car
(An old Ford pento if the frame is to be believed)
Reversing away from the driveway that was my home
From my first moments to my first tree
I wailed in what seemed agony
At my father's outstretched arms
Protruding from a screen door
Illequiped to hide his tears

Within the frames I became lost
Neither direction nor time having meaning
(For what end can be more traumatic then divorce for an innocent five year old?)
Here and there were glimpses into yet more
Beginnings lost to even more endings;
My first day at school...
The death of my grandfather...
My first kiss...
The end of my first friendship...

Friendship

The frame broke my distress and stole my focus
"David, my mom said it was alright if you stay the night at our house!"
I was excited
(Finally a reprieve from traumatic rememberances)
He said "Alright, I'll tell my dad and be over after school!"
He was excited
(His mom had died the year before due to something called 'overdose' and was constantly sad so it felt good to see such life come into him)
The frame grated into place a few hours later
My mother stood in the kitchen of our small trailer
Crying as she told me "I have something to tell you."
(I was eight and seeing her cry made me cry)
"What's wrong mommy?" I asked
She said "honey, we can't afford to live here any longer, your aunt is on her way to pick us up."
(According to the frames this was the fourth such occurance)
"But I invited David over like you said to stay the night!" I pleaded
To no avail as my aunt pulled up to take us away
From my first friendship

Distraught, I raged at the horizon
"Why do you toy with me so?!
You tease these memories of beginnings
Only to destroy them with endings!"
As if in reply the frames shook,
An internal earthquake occurred
And there she stood
My wife
Frozen in the frame of the first time we met
A memory I could never forget
As beautiful as a late afternoon sunset
Fixated, I took her in my arms
Refusing the frame to let go
Holding on through the fast forward
Of our first kiss...
The first time I met our kids...
Our first argument...
To my last breath...
"Though there may be endings to some beginnings, my love for you will never die...
I...
Love...
You..."

The frames ended similar to the last reel of film from an antique video
The light across the horizon faded
Yet I still held her frame
...never to let go...

You see, the Prime Covenant is the deal we make with ourselves upon entering this life.

We agree to feel love as equally as we agree to feel loss.

Life after death is the reward for making this pact so that even in the darkness that follows the light, the most wonderful beginning will always be with you beyond every end.