BATTLE SCARS

Those ravishes of time
wear them with pride

Those war wounds
from the battles of life

The wrinkles and sags
worn like so many scars

Each one telling the tale
of accomplishments and defeats

Your disappointments and triumphs
where you went and where you should never have gone

Those are the imprints of rivers crossed
and mountains climbed

The tracks of tears shed running parallel
with furrows of laughter

Those eyes now blurry
have seen love come and love depart

So look deep into the mirror
to read the map of your well traveled life

And wear those battle scars with pride
as you approach trail's end

For you are a soldier of survival

###

FOR SMOKY

He had but one eye

But it bore into our hearts

Like a shooting star

This bundle of five month old

Gray feline fur called Smoky

And he became a charter member of our family

He loved people and craved attention,

A stranger to no one’s lap,

Gentle as a mother’s kiss

And for fourteen years of playfulness

We petted, he purred carefree and content

Until Nature’s clock wound down

When he slept away the day

Motionless as stone, too immobile

To even eat or drink

When the purring gave way to gasps of breath

And confusion throttled his brain

As the assault of age, cruel and unstoppable,

Knawed away at his strength and spirit

 

But in his last moments of life, he buried his head

In my chest as if to reassure me before saying that final goodbye

A glint, however dim

Still glowing in his single eye to tell me

It was all good, my friend

It was all good