Pleasing Symmetry
Dec 22 2008


I’m now sure when I stopped counting in months.
If I hadn’t, by now I’d be 600-plus,
instead of 50 something.
Because it seems, as life speeds up
counting by decade is close enough.

But the day will eventually come
when I’m told no more can be done —
only so many months
left to live.
I will count down
month by month
until each week, each day
is enormous enough
to contain a lifetime of meaning.
Hoping, of course
for the miracle cure,
the spontaneous remission,
the reprieve
handed-down from heaven.

And in that 2nd childhood of living
in the pleasing symmetry of its finish
I will have patience
for only the important stuff in life.
Measuring it out, as at the beginning
one month at a time.