PLUS AND MINUS

The new baby, celebration,
but then the cries in the night,
last week my single aunt’s funeral,
the one we took in for the last
two years, a sweetheart, tears,
miss her already, but now time to catch up
with what we missed these past two years,
losing hair, gaining weight,
the first dent in the new car,
the pay check and then the fuel bill....

As the wise formulate it,
“Additions and subtractions:
the mathematics of life and love.”

We watch TV, relax, and kill time.
We take vacations that go too fast.
Days come; days go. Wheat and grapes
are crushed. How else do we get
bread and wine? We give; we take.
We fall on our knees in hurt;
we rise up with hope.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009