So much so long ago

Really had no thought behind it

Racing through life

As if it was a a journey

That needed to be completed

With urgency

Till now as time flies but the body doesn’t

Daily, frequently, all the time

It is frighteningly quite apparent that

The body is lagging far behind

Slowing down, reversing gears as it were

In it’s attempts to replicate

What was once ‘all that’

Case in point

Trimming trees

Granted never has a tree had me scampering up its bark

But in my defense often used a ladder

To shape the lower branches

And here is where I have finally found

My understanding , my brain is of the opinion

I still possess this skill set

So as it were

My wife and I set out the front door

Three step step stool, and a trimmer our accessories

Slight discussion who would use the step stool

She of more ‘nimble footing’

Might have been the logical choice

But I the more delusional of the pair

Somewhat confidently strode to the arena

Heard a loud drumroll

Up the three steps

Still bending over

Knowing full well to straighten up

Will test every known weakness in my body

Finally my body is extended to it’s full 5’7”

And with that a certain movement was noticed in the sky

As the juxtaposition of my body and the moving landscape

Immediately convinced me of my folly

Quickly notifying my cohort of my concern

I returned to Mother Earth from my perch

Neither of us able to look at each other

Quietly very quietly

Playing the last moments over in our minds

Not understanding where the last seventy years had gone

Wanting to cry and laugh at the same time

For what we had lost but also for what we still had

FXC 8/9/2020 Copyright frankxcameron.com

Time flies

We all know that

Till the pandemic

Now all is in slow motion

Every day is the same day

Lot of days same clothes

Same uncombed hair

Online ordering eliminated leaving the house

No new news

At this point we could print our own paper

Name calling and blaming

Would headline all the articles

The virus, the virus, the damm virus

Who started it, how many people have died

Turn to your left one answer

Turn to your right a different answer

And for goodness sake

What would we do without Twitter

From the top down, it is paid bull…

So depressing

We are in the pit of despair

As the echoes of our collective anxieties

Reverberate against our sanity

The only solution?

Crawl back into our own minds

And try to remember the truth is within us

FXC 8/09/2020 Copyright frankxcameron.com

Not an advertisement

Just where my little 13 year old Ocherese

Was to be groomed and given her annual shots

Having recently moved this was ‘Micahs’ first time at the

Moser Rd Animal Hospital

Pandemic time though so the mask hanging around my neck

Was positioned over the nose and mouth

However even before that the hearing aids need to be removed

Lest they be knocked askew or off by the mask

Now properly prepared to enter, peering through the window

Making sure no more than two persons were already in the office

Even better no one was in the office or even behind the desk

Waited a couple of moments to see if I had been noticed

No sound, quietly said , ‘Hello’ then louder, ‘Hello’

Without the hearing aids though, heard a feeble, ‘Sit down’

Then again a muffled, ‘Sit down’,

Could not locate where the responses came from

First of course checked my mind to make sure I heard what I had heard

Again verbally ventured, ‘What did you say?’,

‘Please sit down’

And there they were

Two parrots

One behind the desk

The other in the waiting room

Very beautiful Ai, colorful even

Even Micah had been fooled

FXC 7/26/2020 Copyright

frankxcameron.com

So many times talking to oneself

Is understood to mean literally

Talking to oneself

And yet we need not look far

In fact just a glance in the mirror

Will reveal an individual who never really shuts up

Granted most times we are just thinking to ourselves

But it’s is what we are thinking

That would immediately inspire a best selling book

A podcast with a million followers

An Oscar winning movie

Images so questionable

Need I describe them

Fleeting thoughts

That leave us aghast

Reminding us that not only can we not share

The pictures with others, we should not even

Be talking to ourselves about them

Thus banning them to ruminations

Within the privacy of our own mind!

FXC frankxcameron.com

06/28/2020 Copyright

Hidden in every lexicon

Lurks words that if used on Twitter

Would be banned

Usually the words would be outlawed

For the pictures they paint with just their letters

A classic is the word, ‘lumpy’

A five letter word which is a picture book

With images of rolls of excess skin hanging

On a body sedentary permanently

Really though ‘lumpy’ is a bit of a misnomer

Lumpy almost adds a poetic touch to what otherwise

Might be referred to as fat

And we would all outlaw that word

So now the search begins for words

That might allude to a meaning

Without really spelling it out!

FXC 6/28/2020 frankxcameron.com

Copyright

Not exactly sure what is missing

Seems like the media needs us in a frenzy

To be obsessed to read or hear the next rendition of ‘truth’

No point in waiting

There is no truth

A million times we prove this to each other

The latest example

‘Attitudes about police’

Would be so sweet if police weren’t needed

No drunk drivers, child abuse, murder, etc. etc.

But we are a million miles away from that

Or a billion years

Every religious organization

Testifies about good and evil

And often delineates exactly what is good and evil

‘The Ten Commandments’ is a prime example

But on a practical basis laws were enacted to keep us under control

That is actually hilarious

If the good Lord, whichever one you believe in, can’t keep us under control

What chance does mere man/woman have

So in all the craziness that we are

Law enforcement officials are required to moderate our behavior

They are after all representing us and actually come from us

Some of us comply others defy

Where are we now?

Where we have been since time began

Postulating

Postulating that we are capable of moderating our own behavior

Is that true or even possible?

We could ask our own ‘Supreme Being’

While looking in the mirror

FXC 06/14/2020 Copyright

frankxcameron.com

Standing tall on a steaming blacktop driveway

Sun still blazing late afternoon

Pensively studying your house

Questioning whether to enter or not

No life in that house right now

For today is the first day to share your proudest creation, your 4 year old girl

With the woman with whom your story began but now has ended

Joint custody now delineates who is happy and who is not

Quiet now alone in the house

You must contemplate

The depths of emptiness

Searching the walls for comfort

Yet there is no easy way

To lay pain to rest

Till in the game

‘My turn, your turn?

The spinner points to you

I want to hold you

But that actually just delays

Healing

There is no parade today

FXC 6/3/2020.

Copyright frankxcameron.com

So great to be four, five even six

When playing fireman, policeman

Occupied your time

Well, then, it was cowboys and Indians

Then that crazy concept of school started

With it’s mandated idea of educational happiness

To mold perfect citizens

Pouring into young minds

What was considered necessary for success

And by the end of high school

Hopefully an inkling was starting to germinate

In your pursuit of happiness

But money is the measurement of success

Not enough, you are not a success

So your education may or not spell

How you are viewed

But get passed that

As spouse and children might envelope your life

Taking it in an altogether different direction

And then for goodness sake grandchildren and retirement

Rename and repurpose you

And then what

There are those who know better what you need to be doing

Downsize, go slower, try puzzles

Let someone else watch the grandchildren

Maybe this is the time to read that book, paint that picture

Take up a new language

Hell I’ve only had 70 years and never done those yet

How ‘bout I just be me?

Whatever that may be

FXC. 5/31/2020. Copyright frankxcameron.com

The awful truth is that this existence is limited

Never wanted to concede that point in the debate

Especially this early in the game

It’s still early, right?

However now that the line in the sand has been crossed

Looking for a soft landing

Don’t know if there really is one

Some options have already been discarded

Stopped drinking, smoking to reduce those causes

Granted since no one exits at a predetermined time or method

Multiple complications crop up

One which was simply terrifying

Was the swab test for the coronavirus

Wore the mask, avoided contact with others

Online shopping became a routine

Yet, yet a procedure that had been delayed

Now had been moved to the front of the line

Thus the red flag of the swab test now flew brazenly in my face

Had already heard descriptions

None indicating a walk in the park

And since the test was given in a parking lot

While in one’s car by a nurse garbed as if traveling far from here

Was really unnerved as if this was my first shot

Knew already some had to administer the test to themselves

That would be my last choice

So the moment was now, the nurse holding what looked like a twelve inch skewer

Hardly noticed at first but quickly became quite aware of a

Very foreign object being inserted where it should

Never have been inserted

Then my Academy Award effort began

As groaning and tears added to complete degradation

Of what had once been a very proud man

Of course could not really look at the nurse now

Embarrassment was the least of my worries

As I hurriedly rushed to use the sanitary clothes

To clean my face

My prize?

Negative test

FXC 5/31/2020 frankxcameron.com

There are those with whom casual defines the relationship

Others with whom there is a nodding aquantaince

At work there are often many friends

Till an invitation to go for drinks after work

Then the friends list is pared down

Occasionally there are those with whom a confidence is shared with

How that confidence is shared by your confident

Will determine how long they remain your confidant

Beyond that there are those with whom you are too close

Discretion was compromised in an unguarded moment

When eyes meet there is an acknowledged moment

A breach of decorum has occurred

Too much is revealed

Possible wishes, dreams, hopes, sadness

Feelings which bind

We are too close and I must go!

FXC 5/1/2020 Copyright frankxcameron.com