The Life We Live

We've all been in heavy patterns of traffic flow.

Some of us on the road are in it everyday though --

Statistically speaking that must increase those odds

And that's why I make a habit of taking it nice & slow.

376 East in Pittsburgh, Pa is gnarly any day of the week

On a late Friday afternoon of St. Patty's Day weekend

The back-up, stop & start traffic to the tunnel is a beast.

Through the tunnel headed to Monroeville it opens a bit

Those easily agitated arrogantly take off like a knee jerk

Reaction, key for survival. ..Not 100% you could be dead.

Traffic is now trucking around a modest 70 miles per hour

Suddenly the black SUV 30 yards ahead of me is at a stop.

I see why in the very left lane of three, we being in the middle

A huge bail of pink insulation bagged and duck-taped on its

Way to cause destruction and maybe even impending death

Behind me is an 18 wheeler big rig truck barreling on down ..

If I wasn't totally in the present moment I found in pre dawn

Keeping my hands on the wheel and my eyes upon the road

This 18 wheeler big rig truck would have nailed my rear end.

But a vehicle in that far left lane with the mobile death device,

Straight ahead of it, kept right on track and drove right on thru

And I darted too right at that point into that far left lane missing

The rolling big bailed bag of pink insulation now tracking another

I didn't look behind in the rear view mirror to see what happened

Rather, staying 100% focused in the moment knowing I'm blessed

I thought how glad I was I hugged my wife goodbye in the morning

How joyful it made me our 12 & half year old fur baby Lhasa Apso

Ran so so fast through the empty paved parking lot of St. Stephen's

All the way from Walnut to Broad streets in the Sewickley Village way

Before all the stay-at-home mothers dropped their kids off for school

Happy I loyally send my mother 2 flower arrangements each month +

How religiously I go to my father's grave each week to light a candle

And how I'm delivering Pittsburgh Poetry Therapy for my boss man

Who honored me with the challenge of engaging an underserved age;

The two sessions I did at two facilities the day before in my awareness

Feeling good knowing I broke on through to the groups recalling that

One poem I shared called "Thought of the Day (in Pittsburgh)" was so

Stimulating for the participants of one workshop they had me repeat it.

Five times I recited it for them with the same Christmas morning result.

That poem was written from my first session with a Monroeville facility

And that's where I was traveling to so I could present the printed poetry-

I wrote at home from the participation of this amazingly thinking group.

Excited to share before I would come back later in the month continuing

The Pittsburgh Poetry Therapy curriculum via my innovative employer ..

Adding to the strangeness when I did safely arrive, my person secured,

The staff at the facility informed me one of the folks in the workshop ..

Well he passed away. He was actually a poet. They said everyone was

Upset. really upset because everyone loved him and he touched many ..

Reciting poetry and also playing the organ so everybody could sing along.

"Ok," I said. "We'll dedicate these poems to him when I'm scheduled back"