What affected me most today?

It is hard to quantify

the significant moments of my day.

 

I know Each is the same.

 

We all live lives of stunning colour,

reality,

w/ vivid, experience.

 

For me,

Here is the list:

 

The early morning welcome of companion, dog-friend, Maisie.

We walk;

Successful avoidance of barking dogs (Alsatian and Rottweiler).

 

Doris Kearns Goodwin

In the car; currently Franklyn Roosevelt –

Polio paralysis,

rural health camp

and extra-corporeal, leadership morphosis;

 

At work, events flowed from tearfulness

to cheery handover

and sadness at realisation;

 

Then,

Everything pushed aside

by smile of an old lady,

first fall

then second

then third;

Everyone home, via the CT scanner.

 

Lying and standing blood pressure –

Would anyone

Expect anything less?

 

One woman,

Dying,

Mismanaged,

Care and provision

Misdirected,

She,

Benefiting little from our technological age;

 

Within a day,

Or two,

She will be dead.

 

A light extinguished,

Beyond Apple

or Samsung.

 

In the middle, a smiling

Beautiful encounter

With

person in her 90’s. (93).

 

No longer falling,

But benefiting from attention.

 

I ask her

And her daughter

To rate me.

On a scale of 1 to 10.

 

One, I am the worst, 10 the best.

 

And,

Soon after, I am off,

To another assessment,

An evaluation of what I have done,

What I am doing

And,

What I will do.

 

The day is broken-up

By phone calls

With funeral directors;

Sincere

Men and women

Doing their best

To ensure

A dignified (timely)

Next step.

 

Day ends with

Spaghetti Bolognese.

 

And,

Red

Dead

Redemption.

 

My children amazed

At my inability to take aim,

To shoot;

Likely a reflection

Of my chances in life overall.

 

I am better-off

Where I am;

Laloux, Proulx and Kafka, Singer, Goleman and Blake,

Fortresses protecting me;

Mantel, Zweig and Nabokov,

Here I come.