We all start out innocently enough,
wanting our fair share of everything,
a little fame, a little fortune.
Then, whoosh, milestones fly by,
each of them duly noted as progress,
means by which to measure a life.
We are warned to keep an even keel,
not to fall for vitriol of detractors
or ebullient praise of admirers.
Some drop off along the way,
unexpected victims of illness, accident,
others revealed as evil, misguided.
Some achieve greatness, or in its stead
contentment or elusive happiness,
while others grow awkwardly into
knowledge of existential void,
fickle mortality pulling at curtain
from side of stage, cheering for
better means to divert attention
through material gains, humor, or
lustful desires, even fanatical devotion
to sports, politics, or religion.
Over years, tastes are formed,
reformed, adapted or resistant to
inevitable cultural shifts
and the increasing speed of time.
It marches on, bringing
realization of the temporal nature
of beauty and grace, the infectious
energy of youth that can dissipate
like dewdrop on morning grass,
like tendrils of night’s dreamy reverie,
gone in the shake of a head.
Prophecy turns to history,
as myth of potential challenges
incessantly to be converted
to achievement, to footnotes
that flavor accomplishment
in a well-seasoned life that races
single heart’s beat at a time
towards an abrupt caesura,
signifying infinity’s end.
So run fast, do much, remember to
find diversion enough to enjoy
rich secrets revealed in living.
Let empathy guide thinking,
let gratitude bind bearings,
as we plunge gawkily forward,
hoping for more and better days.
Gary Glauber is a widely published writer of fiction, music, poetry, and more. He is a teacher and a former sportswriter and music journalist. He has two collections, Small Consolations (Aldrich Press) and Worth the Candle (Five Oaks Press), and a chapbook, Memory Marries Desire (Finishing Line Press). A new chapbook of surreal poetry, The Covalence of Equanimity, is forthcoming in 2020 from SurVision Books.
© 2020, Gary Glauber
Halfway Down the Stairs 