Cameos

The store was busy, it was that time of the day;
parking lot full, people with carts rushing to their cars,
the day chilly with high winds and dark clouds looming.

I did a little shopping for Janet, simple things really,
some bread, health nut, or oat nut if they were out,
a baked chicken, Motrin, special toothpaste,
tooth brushes, floss (glide) and then to the pharmacy for prescriptions;
today there were three.

A I waited I noticed a young woman with a shopping cart,
she was pulling it after her, and her twins, fraternal, boy and a girl,
pushing them in their dual carriage. Probably 21,
or perhaps a little younger, or older, hard to tell, she seemed so tired;
for having twins is double the pleasure and fun along with the work.

Then a woman walked slowly in, holding her stomach, in great pain,
for she was also bent over a bit, grimacing, as if she were in some way
trying to protect here stomach area from further harm.

She tried to sit down in the waiting area, but the chair was not right,
the legs were off in some way, so I went and got her another one,
helped her to sit down and she thanked me and said “I just had surgery”.

Those in line let her go first, a little unnoticed kindness and she slowly walked off.
Why is she alone I wondered; must be difficult to be in so much pain,
yet she was getting pain medications, so soon she would feel better.

Little dramas everywhere, fleeting moments, cameo appearances that
make their way into all of our lives, and I guess we are that for others,
strangers, who notice us for a moment, then we are gone and they forget,
just a shadow memory with hardly any existence at all.

I wonder about our whole lives, they to are cameos, fleeting, soon over,
we are gone and forgotten; one generation replaces another in fast succession.
For it is only the young who perhaps think life is a long affair,
a thought soon lost in the hurly burly of their lives.

Br. Mark Dohle, OCSO
Holy Spirit Monastery

Tagged as: Dohle, lives, memory, time