A Cut Through Fearful Skin

A Cut Through Fearful Skin

We talk, laugh, listen and contemplate
caress hands and face
hold our breath
Another body has become a victim
by midnight many more
Anyone can join, no entrance exam here
Age is no barrier nor experience

Family life interrupted
Plans put on hold
No holiday this year
maybe never again?
A pause in the bucket list
holed just below the brim
and letting in water.

Tears flow and cascade
in apparent slow motion
Wetting a newly ironed shirt
Trying to be heroic
but it’s easy to fail
Edging through uncharted waters
fearful of icebergs and other underwater threats.

Do I buy a return ticket?
it’s cheaper that way
Some will be fortunate
Able to get off
at the next station
Surely they will not ask
for a refund?

Countless hospital visits
the car on auto drive
Remembering and reacting to
every twist and turn of the road
Uneven, potholes surfaces
A metaphor for life
perhaps?

A warm handshake, a nervous smile
Complete strangers will become friends
Life savers hopefully
A firm surgical cut through fearful skin
Trying to keep a family intact
A suture for a new future
Hopefully!

We have our memories, successes and failures
A hard drive full of emotion
yet software damaged temporarily.
Will it be easy to reset
Life’s factory settings
or are we heading prematurely
to that storage cloud in the sky?

A life enriched by experiences and loved ones
Even a limited future is worth the fight
The outcome can never be controlled
But being alive is
what I treasure most.
It’s not easy to accept
the inevitability of death

FINGERS CROSSED!