I get it, Max, but still wonder at the youngster inside, whom you mostly leave out of this take on this thing....
which quietly sees its way to its end(ing).
Doug
On 2012-09-20, at 4:38 AM, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Not too cheery Max just eat and be merry -it could be fun
> P elderly P
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 19 September 2012 12:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: 'Flat Chat'
>
> Flat Chat
>
> Procrastination
> keeps me busy -
> flat out.
>
> Cras - Latin
> for tomorrow -
> *that* morrow -
>
> 'eat, drink, and
> be merry, for
> tomorrow we die' -
>
> that's just hyperbole
> for the unknown day
> coming our way,
>
> which right now I find
> easy without drink
> to deny.
>
> Postpone that
> we surely would
> if only we could.
>
> My mood is still:
> why should tomorrow
> differ from yesterday
>
> and the one we're in - today?
> Like Ted Hughes's hawk,
> I want to keep things this way.
>
> Sufficient unto the -
> etcetera -
> and inertia
>
> seems to keep down,
> or back, the dark stuff
> referred to.
>
> Tomorrow may just
> bring me more
> to postpone.
>
> Already I'm way overdue
> for dentist,
> eye specialist,
>
> hairdresser
> even. Delay may mean
> fewer teeth, less hair,
>
> less sight, even,
> to ask them to save.
> We don't see eye to eye,
>
> specialists and me,
> subsidising their
> golfing holiday.
>
> So, others are out
> and about
> while I'm at home,
>
> feet up,
> resting my eyes,
> blinds down -
>
> why go out
> where all are busy?
> as if what makes
>
> the world go round
> is business -
> mere busyness.
>
> It did pause for me,
> that world of yours,
> when I jumped off.
>
> I soon adjusted,
> called my time past
> time wasted.
>
> Yet I miss the spectacle,
> as well as new spectacles.
> I miss the parade
>
> of young and hopeful,
> intense, beautiful;
> a quiet stroll
>
> may let me recall
> what it is to yearn,
> to work, play, and earn.
>
> Theirs is the present.
> It will come soon enough,
> the unpostponable.
>
Douglas Barbour
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http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
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