Letter to Okaji on the Past Not So Perfect
Dear Bob: I often think that things are just as they should be. The house is just right. My car is running fine, on it’s way to 200,000 miles. The young are healthy, the elders nearly so. And then the lawn dies under another heat wave, after it’s third planting, and the throttle body on the car sucks more water than air as it chokes and dies during a 700 mile drive to a funeral in the dead of winter. But I limp home after a major repair with engine flush and decide not to tell the local shop they cracked the oil filler cap when they changed my oil. I learn to live with weeds and balance water consumption with a scraggly lawn. I also remind myself that a sore knee when I make that mid-nightly trip to the bathroom doesn’t mean I won’t wake up in the morning. Life goes on, sometimes smoothly. Sometimes we limp on, but we don’t let that spoil our view out the window, or even down the road. All my best. Ken.
A reply to Robert Okaji’s Letter to Gierke from the Future’s Past.
(I think this may be my first prose poem.)
rivrvlogr 
Ken, that was an excellent read, really enjoyed it – hope to see more of your prose poems!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Lynne. Bob has a way of taking me in unexpected directions.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ll recall your words here next time I wake up at 3:00am with pains! (Good perspective to nurture…)
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂 Now the other two times I wake during the night… those are more persistent.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ha! We must suffer from the same affliction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, many of rise periodically to check the bulb in the night light. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
It might go out!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We do learn to love our weeds.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Calling them wildflowers helps. 😉
LikeLiked by 3 people
I have lots of wildflowers. 😉
LikeLiked by 3 people
I love your letter Ken. It is so funny and positive – even when things seems to come apart.
Just hiccups….you will wake up in the morning and see the view again. 🙂
I adapt a similar view on the bumps on the road. Most of the time.
Miriam
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Miriam. Yes, most of the time. Perspective is like that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This is so human and so sweet. I love that you’re replying to that particular poem which is a favorite of mine. Now, this one is too!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you!
Bob’s poem is great. The fact that it got my name up in lights at Vox Populi has absolutely nothing to do with it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Reblogged this on O at the Edges and commented:
Ken Gierke’s reply to “Letter to Gierke from the Future’s Past.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
The world should know that letter writing is not a lost art! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly! Even in the form of poetry.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that poem of Bob’s–and your reply is so well-done, Ken. It’s a wonderful prose poem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Merril. I had actually tried to write a prose poem earlier in the week (which happened to be about travel), but couldn’t get anywhere ( no pun intended – well, okay, maybe) – always thinking about those line breaks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I’m never sure about prose poems. Mine just seem like prose. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoyed this prose poem, Ken – nicely done!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Betty.
LikeLiked by 1 person