mid-morning
breakfast special
served until 11
later than usual
for me
eggs
as always
sunny and runny
home fries and bacon
no coffee today
pandemic quiet
traffic is slow
before lunch
it never used to be
like this
everyday fare
Patrician Grill
nothing fancy since 1953
good food
there
when you need it
2020 j.g. lewis
In my pack I carry a notebook,
day planner, a paperback, often
my camera, occasionally a
sweater, usually a sandwich,
and always a piece of fruit.
These are the things required
to get me through the day.
In my mind I carry thoughts,
a never-ending to-do list,
residual dreams, a purpose,
memories, and lessons
I have learned thus far.
Hopefully it’s enough
to get me through life.
Travel light, or as light as
possible. It’s pointless
carrying around too much
baggage, or too many things
that hold you back. You
should know what you need
to keep moving forward.
At the same time, always leave
a little room for the unexpected.
Whether it’s time, space, or
mindset, you have to allow for
new thoughts, adventures,
people, and the treasures you
may find along the way.
© 2015 j.g. lewis
We seek shelter, a leafy tree,
tenement steps, even pressing closer
to a random building
in hopes we may be spared.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Ignoring the signs, we forget the distinction
between lightning and thunder,
not counting the seconds between,
or caring.
Overcast, overcome with the immediacy
of the moment. Summer weather
a reminder of the turmoil we live with,
or clouds we live under.
A day as promising as a politician’s smile,
just as deceiving. Unnoticed, but not
unexpected. Forced,
by chance, to deal with inclement emotions
and torrential pain. Crushing humidity,
atmospheric pressure bucking
under its own weight. Our thoughts
hold us hostage.
Days rarely go as planned.
Night will come, as surely as our breath.
Here we are, huddled with strangers,
waiting out another storm.
© 2019 j.g. lewis
If the first meal of the day
is the most important,
so too shouldn’t be
your first thought?
We wake, come alive
to a new day, refreshed.
Fresh.
The mind springs
from unconsciousness,
breaking free of dreams
and the complex thought
it has toiled with
through the night.
As you slip
from dormancy to reality,
after you clear away
the residue of all
the nocturnal clutter,
what thought
remains standing?
The unconscious mind
is often better able
to resolve
life’s complications
outside
of one’s awareness.
Now, mindful
of what needs
to be addressed,
how will you
proceed with the day?
And how
will you make today
better
than the day before?
© 2015 j.g. lewis
What ever happened to
the peace and love we spoke of,
decades before? Our realism of idealism
before capitalism; humanity above profit.
Conscious thought. Truth.
Was this a concept
within a dream, altered by greed
and get-rich-schemes
that became the way of the world.
Do we know how it happened?
Can we understand? Why?
Each generation judges those before,
every generation knows a state of war.
This reality becomes hard
when the violence is right there
in your backyard. Fact.
Something is not the same.
We were young once. Age
now testimony to where we have been,
what have we witnessed, and
how we have failed those
who shall follow. Evolution.
How do we speak of freedom?
Can we hold a stranger’s hand?
Are weather-beaten symbols and
time-ravaged slogans relevant any more?
Honesty. Do we remember
how to make love, not war?
© 2019 j.g. lewis