How Difficult

How difficult it is
to pull our eyes away
from the "all-important" events
of daily life,
and how much beauty is overlooked
as our eyes stare fixedly?

How difficult it is
to have faith
that the events of our daily lives
happen for a reason,
however unclear those reasons may be?

How difficult it is 
to honor the balancing act
that is life,
to know,
even as you struggle,
that for every negative event
a positive one lies in wait?

How difficult it is
when struggle seems 
to always take center stage?

How difficult this life can be.

Contrast

Earlier.

Casino snack bar. 
Cheap tables and chairs
waver in a haze of smoke.
Upholstered benches 
bulging and split.
Backed into a corner

I see him eating.

Feral.

Elbows like turrets

guarding his food.

Chin low,

dark marble eyeballs

rolling back and forth

in their sockets...

I'm reminded of the cat clock

except he isn't smiling.

Later.

Whole Foods parking lot.

Blue-collar worker all the way

standing in dust shrouded jeans,

his white shirt not so white.

The tailgate is down,

battered and bent,

two boys sit in the truck bed,

couldn't be older than eight.

Late-night picnic

spread out on a ratty blanket.

Mouths stuffed with food, 
chins high,

eyes scanning the star-studded sky

with that look of wonderment

only children seem to have.

My smile carries me home.

Eavesdropping

Cricket conversation in the distance,
all legs and antennas,
talk I feel but can't interpret.
Remember parking at work,
a golden kitsch prayer wheel
still turning on the dashboard
of a car next to me...
round and round
as if by some ghostly hand,
and the night's eye
wide with stars
feigning to blink,
but always staring down.