MONO ISSUE 2 - Flipbook - Page 9
AND NOW I APPLAUD ALL THE THINGS THAT STAYED
THE SAME IN MY LIFE
by Lorie Greenspan
The tiger lilies, and the deer that ate them every summer.
Hamburgers on Sunday from the restaurant – now gone forever –
whose remaining sign reminds of home
and the wicker chair swinging from the porch corner,
where we listened to the baseball game on the radio.
And ate those burgers.
The garden that bloomed and fell,
as predictable as fireflies or the mosquitoes that invaded –
never buzzing in the same place twice.
Yet always to be counted on.
The roads on which we travelled,
the river that coiled around the roads
and the banks alongside that river, never changing.
Never changing, the eye of the view that graced the tips
of balconies and basement windows
to reflect the life and death there.
I applaud the towns and villages, the shops, the sidewalks
and even the people differently dressed,
the same blur, the same movement back and forth.
The same scenery.
Year after year,
always to be counted on.
My applause is but one fragment of my gratefulness
for having stood against all the turbulence.
I am like the things that stayed the same in my life,
seeking no different avenue or path, seeking not to heal a scar
but to etch it more deeply so that it becomes a brand.
Every hand clap, every applause,
every bow is done so for the good of my life,
a chain link of images that will be with me, deeply driven.
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