The Last Monday Morning in October, 2013 The month is ending. One can say with a note of exaggerated finality that there shall be no more Mondays in October of the year 2013. The predawn rain shall not fall again on the garbage collectors at the curb. The grass shall not again dampen my shoes as I carry the empty can behind the house. The night shall not again give up the dark through a series of rituals involving the kisses of children as they depart for school, at least not on this day. Is it folly to note with melancholy the passage of our lives, as if these insignificant moments bore repeating or even a place within our memory? Shall I remember the pain in my hip that disturbed my sleep and refused to yield as I rose from bed and engaged in the greatest of all technological marvels: a hot, morning shower? Shall I remember the aroma of coffee, waiting on the table and wafting into the bedroom, prepared for no one other than me by my wife in the kitchen, as she juggled a dozen morning routines? Many of these tasks will come again, some as soon as the morrow. But none will find me as I was today, just this old and almost forgetting to ache. |
The Last Monday Morning in October, 2013 David Keffer Knoxville, TN October 28, 2013 |