All For Naught

 

I've decided it's true.

No good deed goes unpunished.

But that it's punished without question

says more about the accuser than the accused.

And the older I get the more unkind I realize people are.

Choose whatever you want to believe.

But remember. It is the belief that defines you, not the

actions of an innocent in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The world will go on, spinning into eternity, and it will all amount to nothing.

Put one foot in front of the other and live your life as if you still believe in humanity.

A hundred years from now, we will be nothing more than stones with dates set in the dirt for the few who will remember.

After that, let the archaeologists dig us up and wonder who we were and what marks we left.

With any luck at all, there won't be a mark to be found.

~ April 2, 2022

Falling Leaves

Perhaps it would be better if I don’t speak.

Reflect the silence back into the water,

listen to the evening come to help the night begin its dark trip behind the  sun.

The winter apples turn.

Fall nudges summer gently to the side,

and the light burns amber, realigns itself

so shadows  lengthen early.

The pages of this book that will not

be lain aside rustle toward its solitary end.

The dead revisit, though they are far away.

Anticipation turns to fear

that winter will not forgive.

Silence becomes prayer.

Breathe the honeyed quiet,

and brace yourself for the tilting

of the world.