Stop looking and living

For the “Big Things.”

The vacations, the weddings,

The holidays, the new babies

Are good and lovely,

No denying!

Exciting

And fleeting.

Stop pining, start thinking!

What are you missing?

The moments are ticking

Away while you’re dreaming

About those “Big Things”

That leave you still wishing.

Quick beauty

Of high degree.

Start thinking and using

The seconds you’re losin...

Days, weeks, months on this road

Riddled with stones, dust, and holes,

I sometimes doubt this loss of control

Over the surroundings I behold

Was worthy price for the loss of my load.

What ill might this wasteland bode?

“Remember in the olden days

When hour by hour we could gaze

On wild flowers all ablaze

With beauty gathered from star-rays?

But now we stumble hot and dazed

Where beauty long ago...

Brian moans and slaps at his smart phone, squeezing the button that mutes his alarm. He’d had a restless night punctuated by dreams he can’t remember. “Still three more days till the weekend,” he groans to himself as he pulls on his jeans and shuffles sullenly to the bathroom.

Robbie silences his alarm and gazes blearily at the screen of his smart phone. Last night’s thunderstorm had woken him se...