When sunny Fall days

call us to come out and play,

how can we say no?

~

Just as long as we

remember to wear a coat

since autumn sun gives scant warmth.

Ah! The dulcet tone

of shattering auto glass!

No good deed goes unpunished!

~

It’s no accident

that fate kindly intervened

and only glass was broken!

Without the guidance

of your teenage son, what 

on earth will you become?

~

To hear him tell it,

I’m destined to end my days

wandering lost in a fog.

As I harken back

to my college search process,

it was not, at all, like this!

~

It must feel good to

know your son has more options

than you had back then.

Why do we look here

and there for happiness when

we could look inside instead?

~

Inner happiness,

somehow, seems less fulfilling

than outer validation.

Let us find beauty,

As unlikely as that seems,

Unto which, to turn our pen.

~

Slowly shifting clouds

against a darkening sky –

beauty comes knocking.

If we are willing

to open our eyes, can we

bear what we will see?

~

If we could stomach

All that open eyes beheld,

We would never have shut them.

Have truth and wisdom

followed faith and charity

into history’s dustbin?

~

Truth and wisdom, faith

and charity still reside

among us dust free.

So, let me get this

straight – groping and grabbing is

ok if you’re rightly aligned?

~

Groping and grabbing

is ok if you’re blind to

basic human dignity.

As the wind begins

to howl and rains to fall

dare we hope for some relief?

~

Here in Virginia

we can expect some relief

from untimely heat.