this road

i teach terri   by example

how lonely one may be when with another

though we are side by side

with fingers reaching and touching

she is alone   i am lost 

lost in myself and my own troubled thoughts

in time she will come to see this

she does her best to make it work   more than i

but there will come a day   a night

when something more alluring glitters before her

and she will take it   so my journey will begin

fearing   at first   the shock of loneliness  

eventually coming to terms   ultimately defining loneliness 

and alone as unique   i’m halfway there 

~

eventide

colin's grandfather has seen a lot

has lived through a lot

and though he is often gruff   he can be sage

i sense the depth of his experience is vast  

i would like to hear his thoughts

yet   his default position is to sit quietly in the evening  

in a comfortably worn leather chair

admiring the view   and whether it is an exterior

or interior view   i don't know

and keeping those thoughts   generally   to himself

when serious subjects are broached  

his inclination is to defer to complexity 

nothing is simple   he says

philosophers like tidy   life isn't tidy   

whatever "wisdom" i may have accumulated along the way

hasn't   and won't   change anything

i know this to be untrue   he has worked hard  

and in the process kept many families protected and employed

in a time when that was not always the case  

he has been generous   he raised colin   which says more than i can say

still   things are complicated   obviously so  

i coax him as best i can   he tolerates me as best as he can  

but there is a limit   and i near it   and often cross it

then hush   as i see his focus shift to the vista    be it external or interior