In the middle of the journey of our life,
I came to myself within a dark wood where
the straight way was lost.

Dante


*

How many times have I asked that question?
How many times do I misquote and say,

In the middle of the journey of my life...

Many...perhaps many more to come.

A life and a death. My aunt, my father's only
sister...the last remaining of that family. Gone.

Of course, we are here. We share the blood.
We share the lineage.

*

I am scratched and bruised and aching
from my labors. I should not feel these things.

Young as I am. Middle as I am.

*

Finished rereading The Half-Blood Prince.
Glad I reread. Time to start the other.
Reading takes us away. Away from the reality
of this war and the immediacy of death.

Away from siblings arrested and siblings
working themselves to death and siblings
settling for the best that comes.

Away from dead fathers and very alive mothers
who cannot give of themselves.

Away from joblessness and rootlessness
and inability to find peace in acceptance.

*

Damn if Huey Lewis and the News didn't
just pop in my head.

I Want A New Drug.

*

Out. Out, damned spot!