How Precious Life Is

How precious life is… When the old rocker rocks in his wheelchair… ACDC heavy precious metal ‘like a wheel spinning’ ‘Highway to hell…on my way to the promised land’ ‘Where have all the flowers gone’ merges mellow into Guns and Roses, let us hope the latter on the ladder of Zeppelins and friendly tunes of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Thomas has no doubt because Saturday is visit time… No Black Sabbath and not Bad Company today not stoned any longer where Black had been Black but Deep Purple floating the beat in fading memories a Sweet Child in Time ‘line between good and bad’ Uriah Heep’s Sunrise and ‘new day is breaking through’ The ageing blues takes its due… For ‘Whom the Bell Tolls’ on lemmings’ way Ding Dong ABC frosted roads searching for Camus’ stranger come use your remembrance because it won’t last forever when the sea parts and Odysseus stays in the grave underworld where Dante’s Inferno meets Mephisto but Satan can wait A traveller close to the gate of redemption… he counts his blessings slowly on an ancient dusty abacus 123 he takes lock stock and barrel laughs at the numbers In his prime he had refused to accept he could not divide takes out the ruler to conquer his world computes divisions adds them all up tallies on the wilting spread sheet of time Inheritance subjected to paper he determines… not gold no diamonds just a coin here and there weaves nostalgia to ribbons from a few shoe strings attached and detached bound closely together as he holds photographs to his priceless brain caresses them dearly touches his soul and soothes his mind When the stroke assaults and takes him home… he crosses the flow of the Styx and finally recalls how precious life has been and dies a happy man on his way…