Between the Rocks and Hard Places

Between the Rocks and Hard Places

By Tom King

It's time we got used to the idea

That soft ways and easy climbs

Will not be the way of it tomorrow,

Today nor even in the twice gone times.

I'd hoped I'd not get old someday

But someday came despite me

And my best efforts to pretend it wasn't coming.

No matter that the time with you passed so lightly.

I never planned an ending for us,

Not from the day we met, I had always ever

Believed an exception would be made,

That, at the end, we would surely leave together.

Now, come down to it, we stumble in the gathering mist

Toward the foggy ending of our little races.

Tripping over rocks; pulled down by time and gravity,

To wedge us here,

Between the rocks and the hard places.

© 2014 by Tom King

Direction

by Tom King 

Did you hear tomorrow on the wind?
I did, just then, a whisper like leaves rustling
Expectantly, waiting for me to catch up;
Tomorrow runs ahead, a puppy chasing frisbees.
Romping off across the meadow in roughly the direction
Of my errant lead, bending the blades of grass
Without breaking them or leaving tracks behind.

Did you see today when it sneaked in early?
It startled me; bumped me out of bed.
Slothfully lying in late without a doctor's note,
Today drags me hour to hour to hour;
Relentless, one foot before the other weaving
Back and forth between the sun, its rise and fall,
Tracing the tracks I leave in the dirt.

Do you feel yesterday watching you from the bushes?
There's this feeling you get on the back of your neck,
Prickly, warm like you forgot something you needed.
Yesterday dogs your heels, catches up from time to time
Poking you on occasion, making you think
About the ruts you made back down the road; nagging.
Should you be going this way at all?

© 2011