Get Your Premium Membership

Problems

Poet's Notes
(Show)

Become a Premium Member and post notes and photos about your poem like Robert Ronnow.


www.ronnowpoetry.com

--Francis, Robert, "Old Roofs", Collected Poems: 1936-1976, University of Massachusetts Press, 1985.

Problems many of which are not getting solved not because I'm not resolved but because I delay to savor the day, the moon and the season which is why I'm a non-person under the eye of eternity. Except for my unpaid bills. And iambic pentameter. Aaron fails English. Is there summer school? What an *******! I want to slug him, but also his teacher, Mr. Fisher, who's probably a nice guy, just doing his job and raising a family. Then there's the catheter from my last surgery I was so sick I thought I was dying. The out of network pathologist and radiologist have declined my insurance and charged me to the hilt. Like I had a choice face up in the emergency room. Facing doom, you don't ask questions. Now that I've rejoined the living I've got to raise a million bucks to save organic farms and endangered species I'll never see. Perhaps none of this matters and chanting's the answer, Buddhist       precepts, or as Dad would say This too shall pass. Life is a back and forth game but baseball is zen meditation, you're in right field, nothing's happening, nothing's gonna happen, but you can't let your attention wander for one second. I should clean and oil my trumpet for Saturday's gig or the valves will stick. And leave early enough not to get stuck in traffic. Other lives, other quilts. A guy who takes the subway to a dead metal desk and the boss who fires him with the cold hard eyes of one who accepts the rules entirely. Actually we're fortunate to have rules because otherwise child soldiers armed with AK-47s would be shooting up the village and setting fire to our thatched roofs. Instead, under the rule of law, when snow falls even old roofs look like problems with proofs.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2016




Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem.

Please Login to post a comment

A comment has not been posted for this poem. Encourage a poet by being the first to comment.


Book: Shattered Sighs