Household Unmanagement: Four By Six

HOUSEHOLD UNMANAGEMENT

Antichaos mantra
“A place for everything …”
All well and good except
No idea where it is

Retirement

RETIREMENT

Where ever did I put that gardening hat?
The one I wear for pottering and that
In my aimless though quite agreeable way.
Before I know it I’ve whiled away the day.

“What have I been doing?” I wonder aloud.
Can’t quite recall, start looking around.
I can see a few crumbs there on the floor.
By the sink several mugs, three or four.

There’s a paper back, only partly read
Lying face down on the chair by the bed.
There’s another open on the window sill
A funny kind of travelogue by that Bill …

So I must’ve sat by the window for a bit.
When the sun’s out it’s a good place to sit.
And I’ve had something to eat and a nap.
Still can’t think of the name of that chap.

I’m wearing my gardening hat I realise.
The one that keeps the sun out of my eyes.
It looks like I didn’t even set foot outside.
But I did put the hat on so at least I tried.

It’s getting dark so it’s too late to start now.
There isn’t anything urgent to do anyhow.
What time is it anyway? I’ve begun yawning.
An early night, I think, and in the morning …

Presenility

PRESENILITY

Remembering
What it is one forgot
Halfway down the stairs
Is a welcome improvement
On only remembering later

No, no all is not yet lost
While what one lost
Is yet remembered
For a little while

Dust

DUST

So much, oh so much
Sits here on the shelf
Mainly gathering dust now

We gathered so much
For we were earning so much
Neither driving nor drinking

Let us buy music we thought
Not only does it move the heart
But is still around in the morning

Uninvited years now come and gone
Leave no one left to blame for that
Least of all all this clogging dust

Realisation And Mindfulness (17b)

REALISATION AND MINDFULNESS

Returning
To the computer
In a flash
Realised
A moment of mindfulness
Left glasses upstairs

~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadorma November

Sneaking Senility

SNEAKING SENILITY

I didn’t forget
To do it but I forgot
That I had done it

Only Living Relation

ONLY LIVING RELATION

Am I too slow now
Or the universe too quick
Not that we’re not one

Courage

COURAGE

The courage
To still confront
Ageing, any mirror
With neither shame
Nor puling denial

The courage
Of (s)he always
The true warrior
The one ever
Disdaining weaponry

Shocks

SHOCKS

Some shocks thunderbolts
Hurled across the living room
“That’s it, I’m leaving”

Some are more subtle
Tiny changes day by day
Not even noticed

An old photograph
Depicts a startling stranger
We no longer are

Sweet Autumn

SWEET AUTUMN

Amid fruitfulness
Dissolution and decay
As the nights draw in