Someone once said to me, Expect the Unexpected.
It seemed daring at the time so I took it on board.
The only problem was because I expected the Unexpected all the time I wasn’t really surprised when it happened.
It was expected, right?
Life was losing its surprise factor.
I felt heavy as a watermelon.
My counsellor suggested — wait for it — Expect only the Expected.
So I do,
When the Unexpected happens I light up like a lantern
twinkle like a star.
It wasn’t expected, right?
Something niggles you
All week
Like a nail
in yr shoe
And you put up with it
That’s what
You do.
And then it’s all over
In two minutes
Flat
and you wonder
hey! why did I
Ever worry that?
But listen up! here’s
the sting:
The very thing
You gave no thought
to at all
burdens you all week
like an extra ball
in yr pants.
Life is brief.
Loosen up. Don’t worry.
Dance
It simply is not true.
You can’t eat your cake
And have it too.
I tried it once.
It does not work.
Someone always ends up hurt.
Take a slice maybe two.
Leave some for others too.
And if the cake
is truly sound.
There should be enough
To go around.
Someone has to be the first.
Someone has to take the first bite
Of the cherry
Be the first cab off the rank.
Someone has to be the early bird
For worms to be taken.
Some has to drop the rock in the pool
To set the ripples going.
Someone has to throw the first stone
For the stoning to begin.
Before I met her
I always laughed at cartoons
alone,
was astonished before paintings & poems
privately;
but now I pass the magazine to her,
the one with the crazy cartoons.
Look at this, I say, & she does and smiles
Span our faces & rumble our bellies
like little laughing Buddhas;
Trouble shared is trouble halved,
my mother used to say — but Joy
Works inversely:
It is doubled when spent with another.
