Tick Tock
Yesterday afternoon
I sat staring into space,
as I often do,
as the sun widens its venue.
A hazy image opened for me.
The polished marble
had this etched message:
"delayed consideration of mortality
does not enhance the chance of immortality.
Your chances are still zero."
Now what life reality prompted this grim message?
Dust covered the reality
of mortality as I excavated sites
in my youthful days,
as an archaeology student.
No prompt there!
That handful of piles prescribed
gave no hint of what not taking them might offer.
And none there!
It was not the trip to the hospital
to clear up the artrial fibrillation.
Only concern was missing lunch.
Again not a hint.
Nor was it becoming an octogenarian,
an old family tradition.
So no personal consideration there!
Reading the obit pages
that could have been copied
from my address book
was more a sense of loss
than a reason for concern.
Not even this was a personal message.
Eighty years having no end in sight.
Perhaps the beginning was
the day I watched
the timer on the microwave tick away
and for a moment saw
an hour glass dripping sand
and seconds.
But even then it is not consideration
of my mortality.
Rather it was impatience
because I had so much to do.
The marble slab
with its somber message was the jolt I needed..
This morning I woke up with a full agenda.
So much to do and so little time
Doug Minnis
December 1, 2009