Our Time

How rude it is to keep beauty waiting

I guess I’m hesitant to get lost in amazing

* * * * * * *

It seems strange, this waiting game

I know you will change me

and I know it will be for the better

I shouldn’t be afraid of progress

I shouldn’t overthink

something, someone

that is permanently imprinted

into my thought process

These thoughts and feelings

will eventually evolve into actions

I’ve become complacent in my patience, though

and I guess the answer to this lovely riddle

is a question:

What are we waiting for?

It’s time we realized it’s our time.

An Unusual Acquaintance

On a highway day drive in April, I befriended a June bug

We got off to a tumultuous beginning

I flicked him out the driver window, but he stuck around for the ride

I tested him, he responded, I respected

He calmly clung to the rearview mirror

And we began to reveal a bit about our pasts

He said his kind gets a bad rap, are considered pests

But they didn't seem that bad to me

He said he had a bad batch with his woman, needed a new start

“I’m glad you’re headed elsewhere” he said

“Because that’s exactly where I’m headed”

He mentioned something about the ubiquitous eyes above
Something about the crows grubbing on his grubs

He told me his woman didn’t trust him anymore

She said he could no longer protect

“How can I fend off a crow?” he helplessly wondered aloud
“It’s beyond my control”

“It’s beyond your control”

He told me his name was Jim

Jim the June bug, has quite the jingle

We easily kept the conversation moving along for a bit

He was a quick witted little fellow
I wished we could have more time
But “I only have a year to live,” he said 

“I don’t have time to waste any of mine”

He reminded me of the beauty of sometimes winging it

We went along for a while – at least a mile – in silence

The comfortable kind, though

The kind only two true friends could enjoy

“Well,” he said
"This is the end"
"I guess I'll be going"

I wished him the best of luck
He did the same to me

With a flick of his wings he was gone
Now I don't know if he gracefully caught a draft
Or if he crashed his ass right into the pavement
Ether way, Glenn H. Curtiss* would be proud

Come to think of it, I was proud of him, too

I hoped his new start was the right one
In a place where the grass is green
The lady bugs are pretty

And the crows, a little less dense

* * * * * * *

*Curtiss' "Flight of the June Bug" in 1908 was the first pre-announced flight in America. 

This College Town

I see movement,

living in this college town

People coming home, going,

people trying to get out

We’re all here to go somewhere else,

persevering the present to propel our futures

Ubiquitous buses roar across town,

filling the silence of day,

protruding the silence of night

Silence is such a profound sound

Living in a college town,

introductions go amiss

First impressions are so very valuable in this land of strangers

Silence is such a profound sound,

especially when it follows such a simple question

“What’s your name again?”

“. . . uhm . . .

. . . uhm . . .

. . . . . . . . . .”

Living in a college town,

I don’t feel the same

when I can’t even say my own name

It’s easy to lose yourself in the campus crowds

Straight A’s fail to sway my dismay

Success will never be

enough to make up for the faults

These are the words of a pessimistic perfectionist

These are the words of a stuttering perfectionist

Today, though, as I look out the bay windows,

I realize all the negativity is just me

You find out a lot about yourself – through success, through failure –

living in this college town

Here, you have to get on a bus to go anywhere,

and you have to step outside

your comfort zone to hitch a ride

I will reach my destination

When I do, I won’t need to say my name –

everyone who I want to know will already know it

When you feel as if you’ve lost your way,

press replay, because you’ve done it all before

And you can do it again

Listen to the voice within

Learn from who you’ve been

Fight hard for who you want to become

This starts for me right here, right now,

in this college town