Don

By Marian Glaser © March, 2000

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How much pleasure I have to cram into these two short weekend days

to get through the next five, filled with clients.

At least my wallet will allow me to invite Anne to dinner and a comic movie.

If the best things in life are free

why is it everything costs energy and money ?

Even appreciating nature requires me battling city traffic and filling the tank.

This jaunt of ours may lead to a ticket,

a stolen car or someone spitting in my face.

I’ve experienced all three. Maybe murder is next.

When I was a country boy so many sights could please me.

I could see stars unhidden by fog and the moon in all its phases.

The hard work made this city seem preferable but

now there is no hope of seeing

a cocoon open and a butterfly crawl out, drying wings in the sun.

I can watch change here but not fox kittens

grow into foxes or a running brook into quiet ice.

Some days seem so blank and

then I see tree branches glittering after freezing rain or

flowers: sometimes small, almost grass hidden,

sometimes roses blatantly obscuring fences.

I need this weekend so that on Monday I can let

people cheer me and rededicate myself to listening

as each client pours out a version of a troubled life or

one of them says or does something that lets me know

they are free to grow.