This grief changes shapes
It runs and comes back to me in different forms
Sometimes it's angry, sometimes sad
But lately, it's a sweet melancholy
That drifts along with the wind
Carrying the scent of pear trees and spring
It has lost its pain to the December freeze And now, it's a reminder of circularity
And the transience of this little life

Time moves
forward
Breakfast
ordered
Sunrise reveals
a new day
People scurry
anxious worry
Obstacles
get in
the way

Memories
measured
Guarded,
treasured
In the midst
of the dawn's
hopeful rays
Seasons changing
rearranging
Minds in
perpetual daze

No time for
caution too
close to the
auction
Our lot numbers
soon will display
Our main
distraction
too close to
the action
"Going once!
Going twice!"
as they say ...

We've arrived
at the end of
the day ...

Time to
finish our
final melee ...

Contemplating our
Fabergé egg





Mark Toney ©️ 2023

Fall semester starts tomorrow. It’ll be exciting - for a few days - but it won’t be long before we’ll miss the tanned bodies of summer, the cool, clear lake-water or lounging carefree, on bright, sand-like gravel beaches.

Tomorrow, things will be different. Our days will start earlier, they'll be a value - a new currency - to morning hours that went wasted on unproductive summer vacations. The change will be sudden, herk, there may be an audible pop of some sort, somewhere, in tonight’s darkest hours.

We’ll be going to the gym so early that we’ll be done and leaving before the first, lazy pigments of sunlight weave morning.

I imagine my room looks like backstage at a new Broadway musical, the very first rehearsal - when nothing’s set in stone and everything’s a mess. My clothes are everywhere. Why did I decide to reorganize tonight? Brilliant.

Peter wants to come over but.. “No,” I say, sighing, overwhelmed. “Look,” I say, as I slowly pan the Facetime camera around the war zone that my room has become.

“Oh, my GOD,” he says, jerking back in horror, like a Californian seeing a fur-coat, “Was anyone HURT?!”

“Ha, Ha, I say, sarcastically, suddenly too tired, “Breakfast at 6:30?” I ask.

“Sure,” he says, taking a tucked pencil from behind his right ear. “Guh-night,” he says.

“See-YA!” I say, pressing the red button and letting gravity guide my phone to a gentle rest atop the clothes-pile that’s concealing my bed.

Why are you afraid? Afraid of letting the world have your taste!
Zipped! Living in a bubble. No acquaintance with the world!
When did you lose the curiosity? It makes you alive

Your veil of ignorance makes you think they are monsters out to get to you
Look deep! Look deep!
The world is you & you are the world
It's a mirror reflecting back what's inside of you

Bring clarity! Bring clarity!
And tear away that veil
Look within, then look away
You may find yourself in a different being!

With a little patience, taking the time,
Writing a story that rhymes, then mixing in music,
A few people can create a song, thousands of people,
Without reading a verse, can sing along, with every line.
Everyone has a style they like, each generation, tweaks it,
Their way, the ones we enjoy, can pick up our energy,
During any slow day.
Music seems to have a direct route to our personal database,
We can live for years, without hearing, a certain song play,
As soon as we hear the first note, we start singing away,
Even moving our limbs, from playing air instruments to a crowd,
That sways!
Our society can learn to remember, many important things,
While having fun at the same time,
No one looked at it as work, or school, the first time,
We heard and sang, happy birthday, and the ABC song,
Now they are a perpetual fixture, memory in our minds.
As we age, many decide to stop listening to music,
And moving around, to a sit and stare, then sooner or later,
When you're talking, others are looking at each other,
Pointing at their head, he’s losing it up there.