When I was much younger, life was
displayed in black and white.
Now, there is naught but a sea of gray.
Evil was evil and good was good.
Now everything depends on the situation,
people involved, emotions, circumstances.
I miss the days when things or people
were so easily judged, thumbs up or down.
But even then, there were warning signs.
Older adults asking probing questions.
“How do you know he is guilty, she did it?”
“How can you be sure they didn’t mean well?”
Life seems a soup of indefinites,
no certainties left,
No mighty over-lord
with all the answers...
Nothing but shades of gray delimiter,
maybe a glimmer of hope on occasion.
Friends were counted as friends back then,
now there are many shades of kinship.
Some can be trusted completely, others not too much;
Relationships carry as much pain as pleasure.
Sometimes we seek out the more painful,
for that rare, elusive reward we might get.
Simplicity can be so appealing,
yet in the end is unrewarding;
Like the teaspoon of sugar in coffee or tea,
a temporary rush, before the letdown of reality.
Superman, James Bond or even Mannix
could twiddle a finger,
sip a beverage,
shake the hair and
go defeat one or several villains,
save the world again and again.
We are doing good just to save ourselves.
Still, it is fun to watch our hero-gods on TV
and forget our slog through indefinite mud-bogs.
Something to pass the time, refresh our spirits,
before we dive back in,
put shoulder to wheel,
thrust our stubborn wills into an
obdurate future,
with no guarantee of anything.
