A New Years Eve some years ago.  The TV in one corner, PC the other, separated from my lover, I oscillate between the two sources of information. My little ones were children who were suffering brain sten glioma... one of whom had just left and joined the angels.

 ("My little ones" as I referred to them as, were American children who were being treated at Duke Children's Hospital  & Health Center in North Carolina. Most were suffering from inoperable brain tumors.)

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Lest I forget…

The leaves are finally gone

And where green or brown once shone

Are now the random blocks of blue

Glimpses of every shape and hue

Between the bare and haggard wood

That even centuries has stood

And yet…

In some untimely fashion

She slides her arm around his waist.

A simple unplanned loving motion

Born of such innocent devotion.

But then...

Each moment - each infinitesimal moment

Is filled with unbelievable heartache

In shattered homes

All around the world.

I click on my Internet link

To read

how my ‘little ones’ are doing.

Whatever the mood of my luxurious and

Unfairly bounteous life,

These moments

Can be guaranteed

To pierce the armour of my brain

And switch on a pain in my heart.

My heartache is nothing compared

To what my fellow humans

Are suffering in their homes;

In hospitals,

In waiting rooms,

Or watching their children endure

From the dreaded letter ‘C’

And so...

Don’t they know

It is really just another day?

Crowded squares burst with expectation.

Couples await the hour side by side, hand in hand,

Stomachs tingling in anticipation

Of the midnight kiss their lips await.

I see...

He wears a crazy mad-hatter’s concoction.

And she a knitted woolen hat that

Squirts her curly hair around…

Garb to welcome in a notion

The skies are lit by crazy pyrotechnics.

Explosions blast the ears and rock ...

I am moved to tears just watching kisses in Times Square

As tall hands are set perpendicular on the clock

And the camera catches infinitesimal moments

That cannot ever be relived in our puny reality

Moments constantly despatched

Into the depths of my mind

Where all their colours are faded and only the

Light of Hope beams through the tiny gaps

That pain and suffering have gauged.

They kiss...

Despite my rushing here and there

In search of something never found -

Perpetually disappointed

By all the frippery and flotsam

My material desire acquires -

I feel the gentle touch of her lips

And savouring the moment clear

Feel my lips get torn from hers

As the moment is over.

© Griffonner 2023