tempus fugit

it says tempus fugit

on grandfather’s clock face  

38 years old

this large presence

                a gift for years of service

first Cullen Drive

then Reay Crescent

and then on Kingsford

and now in our basement

at the bottom of the stairs

tall walnut serene sentry

ticking/chiming

seconds

 minutes

quarter-hours

pendulum ponderous portentous

mom and dad got used to the chimes

and the hourly counting to 12

twice a day

time was their friend

until it wasn’t

memories swept away

like seconds on the pendulum

dad fighting until the end

for a shred of his former self

and mom accepting the failures of the body

minutes running out on that tremendous spirit

now it continues to swing seconds away

in our house

but I can’t make the tolling chimes work properly
no matter how much I try

Keri Johnsrud at Joe Segal's place

she’s got this purple flowered dress

and red curtain hangs

draping back wall of Monday night

at Jazz Showcase in Chicago

band surrounds with confident

tight ribbons of sound

and she sings sweet cascades

reddish hair framing young face

smile hinting brilliance

and we recline in the

buoyant

chord

changes

drinking in interplay

as eyes on stage dance

in the flowered purple dress that is jazz

Hamlet and Maria in Stratford

on the same stage

a few hours apart

two sides of us

colliding

and asking for our hearts and minds

on this summer day in 2015

oh that this too

too solid flesh would melt I have

confidence in confidence alone oh cursed

spite that ever I was born

to set it right I simply remember

my favourite things get thee to a nunnery why

wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners the hills are

alive with the sound of music oh what a rogue

and peasant slave am I climb every

mountain who would fardels bear

 to grunt and sweat under a weary life

when he himself might his quietus

make with a bare bodkin ford every stream

follow every rainbow till you find your dream good night

sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest so long

farewell auf wiedersehn good night

and so it continues

until the end of days

with no right or wrong

just Elsinore, Denmark and Saltzburg, Austria 

tugging tugging tugging

rainbow (for G and L)

driving drizzled highway

near Nipigon

packed with lives

lived elsewhere

slow steady journey

of rain and weary miles

summer sun setting

reflecting off sun-patched lake

look straight ahead

into bands of colours

prism spectrum blending

one into the other

gradually entire arc

appears glorying

evening eastern sky

with promise

and we drive

straight into shining hope

water body

before

I would walk into lake (West Hawk)

chilled water numbing

until

water up to chin

arms raised

floating the surface

tiptoing                flirting with submersion

or

stay in the shallows

hands crawling the sandy bottom

body horizontal

head tilted up

catching summer breath

don’t remember learning

it might have been in the Altona pool

hot summer outing

or a brother  showing me how

after

I would stay close to bouys

that marked off beach area

testing endurance

from one end to the other

waves lifting and lowering

my lithe form

or

dive deep

for shiny rocks on the bottom

holding breath

like a pearl finder

wondrous water enveloping