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Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

0 posted 2005-10-02 06:37 PM

She gifts me with a Happy Finger this Sunday morning,
giggles at the mess she makes during breakfast and lunch,
then in the early afternoon she spreads her aging cheeks apart,
awaiting the major cleanup; then into the shower
for the second time in 5 hours.

But you know, but for the grace of a kind God
or a lucky fall of the card deck,
it could be me, and someday very well may be.
So I hang in there, a grin upon a chin
that has learned how to stay pointed up
no matter what it encounters.

But I’ve got to tell you truthfully,
I still cherish a memory, when Sunday morning
was a peaceful stretching purr,
eyes feasting upon the soulful sight
of a meandering mother moose and her yearling,
listening to the symphony of falling footprints
crunching the brittle birch leaves
long before the soft white snow carpeted
the heaving frozen grounds of an Alaskan October.

But these Sunday mornings I am up early to go work
with some fragile people who know nothing of Alaska,
nor the meanderings of moose, nor of the war in Iraq
nor fear the fact an avian flu is bound to attack the planet.

I once pondered the reason each changing season,
why some were blessed with not having to know
of the evil mankind can do.
And then, I saw the video
of what some of these souls endured
for many many years in a state institution,
where they were herded around like cattle (or worse).
It reminds me why I will go back again tonight at midnight,
work the graveyard shift, doing all the same things
over and over again with these five individuals,
offering a kinder gentler lifestyle,
where the individual is treated with respect and dignity,
the same way I want to be.

By pure chance, the luck-of-the-draw, or the grace of God,
it could have, and still may be someday, me in a similar home.

Martie

Moderator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-09-21

Posts 28049
California

1 posted 2005-10-02 06:47 PM

Kacy....This kind of giving is what makes the world a place I can live in. Thank you for being who you are.

inkedgoddess
Member Rara Avis

since 2002-11-19

Posts 7392
Ohio

2 posted 2005-10-02 06:55 PM

thank you for acknowledging their existence
among the 'brighter' humankind

Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

3 posted 2005-10-02 07:09 PM

thanks, ladies, for spending a moment here with me.
Some days the job duties are overwhelming. But then I see that 'Happy Finger,' which is a gesture made by thumb and finger positioned into an L shape, that means "I am happy!" and I know I'm doing something needed and worthwile.

Martie

Moderator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-09-21

Posts 28049
California

4 posted 2005-10-02 07:12 PM

and you know what, Kacy, you just made me give the happy finger to my dog. She didn't understand, but I feel so much better. Thanks!

Midnitesun

Member Empyrean

since 2001-05-18

Posts 28647
Gaia

5 posted 2005-10-02 09:57 PM

LOL, Martie, thanks for giving me a giggle with that comment! And for your poem 'babe' in the archives, which I hadn't read before. What a tender write!

kayjay
Member Elite

since 2002-06-24

Posts 2015
Oregon

6 posted 2005-10-03 05:54 PM

This is a story of a true heroine in our struggle for simple humanity among us, Kacy. Beautifully written. Ken

Through rubble and trouble and dark of night
The yawn of a dawn will hasten the light

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