ROCK AND ROLL CRUSH

your bandmate pulsed and ebbed beside you
as you sang and squinted under the lights
or watched your fingers move across the strings
like your guitar was the only thing in the world

and it turns out it was

"CULTIVATE YOUR GARDEN"

Pulling weeds is a mundane task
but necessary

Running a brush through your four-year-olds hair
doesn't often garner recognition

Who is there to see the mentally-ill man
you allow to sit at your kitchen table in the evenings
and eat your leftovers?

Does the mention that you live with your aging grandfather
impress people at a social event
as much as the letters behind your name?

There is so rarely applause
for the kindnesses that go unseen
and unpublicized on Facebook

And as you stand on your porch
and look at the lives around you
ask yourself this:

Am I taking care of the flowers in my own back yard
or leaving them to wither and die?

THINGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL ALIVE

It's the small things
like the smell of fall leaves
or hearing a song that I love

Sometimes it's being at work
and remembering a time
--when I worked somewhere else--
when I was younger
and I had my "whole life" ahead of me

Other times it's the thrill of learning something new
or seeing the look in a student's eyes when they "get it"

At any rate
there's still a lot of things to live for
and they are not all behind me