FREEDOM – SLIPPING AWAY

Ropes, thick tan
heavy hairy dock ropes –
the reality of being tied down,
held here by ropes
on dark sold iron posts,
nailed to the dock,
my life’s days slipping away,
but he knew, in the morning,
he would slip off and slip away
into the bay – into the open ocean –
into freedom, once more
heading out into the open sea.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009

SMILE!

Smile!

Everyone has the ability to smile.
It comes with the package.
We see people smiling all the time,
with a wave of the hand, a beep on the horn,
with a quick hello on the way home from work.

Smile!

It must begin in the womb,
because a baby can smile
way before she learns to talk or walk.

Smile!

And if you see someone
who has forgotten how to smile,
tickle them, play jokes on them,
and if that doesn’t work, say it to them,
“Smile!” and if that doesn’t work,
put your upper teeth on your lower lip
and push air at them “Pfttttittttttt!”

Smile!

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009

P.S. That's my sister Peggy

[Sister Saint Monica, IHM]

outside the chapel

at Marywood, Scranton,

on her Golden Jubliee Celebration.

Is that a smile?

LIFE

Life is time,
time to cross rivers,
bridges or no bridges.

Life is time,
time to throw the dice
and move around the
Monopoly board.

Life is time,
time to take the time
to sit there and fit together
the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle,
and it’s always more enjoyable
to do it as a family.

Life is time,
time to open doors,
to journey to far countries
and sometimes a pigsty,
only to discover the desire
to return home to those
we didn’t know loved us,
to those who looked
up the road every day to see
if we were going to come home
from the far country that day.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009

FULL MOON MONSTRANCE

To share the moon with a thousand eyes
on a bright night like this,
knowing that millions, billions,
own this moon. It’s ours.
Do people on porches,
people walking their dog,
people closing their curtains
and their eyes for the night,
wonder is anyone else thinking
what I’m thinking as I’m looking at this moon?
Does a full moon make everyone different?
Does a full moon make everyone quiet?
Does everyone still feel the amazement
that some of us walked on this moon,
stuck flags on it, spent hours on it,
and then had to leave. Yet, like tourists
and travelers, took a few small rocks home
as souvenirs.
Do those few who think the moon landings
were a hoax really think that?
Do some see the Eucharist in the Moon
bringing together everyone in communion?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009

DOES EVERYONE?

Does the other fellow ever long for the green grass in my yard or the new car in my driveway?
Does anybody want to be someone else and not themselves?
Does everyone want to be somewhere else and not here?
Does every married person feel lust for someone other than their spouse?
Does everyone say, “Why the heck and I doing this?”
Does everyone long for a vacation, but not with their family?
Does everyone who never went to college feel inferior to those who have a college degree?
Does everyone who goes to college find out that the biggest thing that college teaches is that smartness doesn’t come that way?
Does everyone feel stupid for at least three days after they made a dumb mistake or made a stupid remark?
Does everyone feel pride in themselves after they had a baby or wrote a song or scored the winning touchdown?
Does everyone like to dress up every once and a while and feel the joy that comes with a compliment?
Does everyone feel amazed at the size and structure of a baby’s hand – especially the pinkie?
Does everyone get scared about death at least once a month especially when they get older?
Does everyone have stuff they are scared to tell anyone else about?
Does everyone wonder if they really know anyone else?
Does everyone – sitting there on a bus or plane say, “I ought to write a book about my life. Nobody would believe it.”?
Does everyone leak?
Does everyone get more serious in the rain or when they are in pain?
Does everyone wonder – even in church – “Is this for real?” or “Is there anything after this?” and they mean, God and death?
Does everyone have a list of questions like this?

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009

FOOTPRINTS

I only seem to notice them in the snow
or on the evening beach, or on the moon,
or in poems and prayers about footprints.

I never seem to notice footprints
on the paths of my own stories,
in my hurts or in my all alones.

I forget to ask a friend if they ever walked
down this feeling – this beach – this path
this other side of the moon where I am right now.

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009

OH NOTHING!

I said, “Oh nothing!”

We both knew nothing
is always something.

“Nothing” sometimes
wears barbed wire.

The “Nothing” answer
can have that guttural sounding
echo, the “uuuuum”.

This “Nothing!”
comes after a lot of
talking to myself inside my night.

This “Nothing”
comes after some twisting
and turning my head and neck
to ease the tension that is
sitting on my shoulders.

This “Nothing”
contains a lie in my smile
as I avoid your eyes.

So that’s why I said,
“Oh, it’s nothing!”
as we’re still stuck in traffic.
A bridge is out.
We have to detour
around each other
in order to avoid this nothing.

“So what are you thinking?”

“Oh nothing.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009