PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

May you be blessed

when life is getting you down and your patience is wearing thin

to look back on the myriad of wonderful memories you’ve had

and be able say with heartfelt gratitude…

How lucky I have been!

I’m thankful we were blessed with with the ability…the way

to reflect upon our life at the end of every day.

I’m thankful in the evening how our minds

take a memory and allow us to review it

showing us all the times in the course of a single day

we were lucky…and never knew it

 I have this lucky shirt…I feel the luck in this shirt is strong…

I’ve worn it many times and every time I wear it…luck has come along.

I wore it on the first leg of our trip to North Carolina.

It’s like being enveloped by and old friend….

And since it’s luck worked that first day… the next morning…I put it on again.

In my defense our car was air conditioned…I didn’t sweat

and for 10 hours I felt the luck through my shirt flow…

So it was an easy decision the next morning…to wear that shirt two days in a row.

(In case you’re wondering if I am a complete slob let me clear the air….

Yes, I wore the same shorts and shirt…but I changed my underwear!)

All this reminded me of a time years ago In the mountains of NC

when Damien and Taylor (our two eldest grandchildren) spent two weeks with Deborah and me.

We didn’t notice this until we looked at the photos later

something that, to this day, still disconcerts…

but in every photo Damien and Taylor were wearing the same shirt!

They brought two weeks of clothing

Stacked in their dressers…each day to be swapped

but each night Deborah washed their dirty clothes then neatly stacked them back on top.

Each morning, without thinking, Damien and Taylor would reach into their drawer…

and put on the very same shirt they wore the day before.

So in every photo taken in each and every frame

due to Deborah’s loving cleanliness…Damien and Taylor were dressed the same.

As I put my lucky shirt into the dirty clothes…to be washed for the 100th time again…

I wondered if, perhaps, Damien and Taylor also had lucky shirts back then.

Which makes me wonder when it comes to our apparel..and our sense of fashion too…

If re-wearing clothes that are not dirty and do not smell…it’s something fellas do.

Which brings me to the reason for this poem:

Beginning with these two weeks in NC

and then on our 48 day road trip…let me take a moment to assert

Do not judge me too critically…

if in almost every photo

I’m wearing the same shirt.

When I look at my life I can’t believe how often I am struck… 

by how fortunate I’ve been to have such rotten luck!

Rotten luck to be born with faulty vision…

how my eyes, without glasses, blur both night and day…

Fortunate to see a different side of nature…

from the landscapes of Van Gogh…to the gardens of Monet.

Rotten luck as a runner to have had surgery on my knee…

Fortunate to discover, once forced to walk, all there is to hear and see.

Rotten luck not to be the football hero I once craved…

with all the fame and fortune it would have brought…

Fortunate to have become a teacher 

who learned from every student I ever taught.

Rotten luck not to have been a playboy…

traveling the world with no responsibility…

Fortunate to have found the love of my life

and together to have built a beautiful family.

In truth that same rotten luck that made me a teacher

even though the pay was low…

gave me the good fortune to be around

to watch my children and grandchildren grow.

Rotten luck never to have written that great American novel

never to have found the time…

Fortunate to see, as I grow older, how I’ve lived a life in rhyme. 

Which makes me wonder as I look back on my life

down every road that I have taken…around every turn and every twist….

If I hadn’t had such rotten luck…

look at all the things I would have missed.