Short-Field Take-Off

She told me not to change a thing for two weeks
     Lest I come to think an apple once a day
          Would touch the enormity of the foe I fought
               In lifestyle change – and then
                    The enemy gain the upper hand
                          With cancer one time more.

I harkened back to AA friends who laughed at selves
     For prayers unanswered – querying why, to hear,
          “You’re not disgusted enough with it yet.”

And so I spent two weeks no change without
     But massive change within as I faced up to lifestyle
           I had lived which brought, in part, that polyp
               To this sorry state and threatened now
                     To do it all again – if change I didn’t make.

A tough two weeks, but what a gift to me –
     That concept -- to hold back then search with
          Freshened eyes the old, before I surged
              Ahead to take some tiny step
                   So futile in the end.

I think I’ll say such more to folks who seek
     In me a way to get on with their lives.
          Like taking off that day the flight-instructor held me to the trees then
               Popped me up converting speed to lift –

We cleared the trees just as before
     But this time climbed and climbed some more
          And settled we not back to the earth
               Our lives he saved – like second birth.

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