As Life Goes By

A Work in Progress
150

Crossbills frequent the fountain

Watching them is not time misspent

They feed they flock away they come back again

Where I’m in the moment with purposeful intent

The past was both happy and sad

Days to remember to forget

Times when awakened feelings were glad

Others haunted by residual regret

I’m in the moment with no time to lament

Though should I take time for what time took away

I’d see clarity from those many years spent

Living on my wits chasing a pay day

Today we brought tomatoes inside 

Where they can ripen not rot on the vine

We went out early with the ebbing tide

Worked all day before sitting down to dine

Happy to have donated grafting tools

To a library housed in an old dairy

A weed steamer and a trimmer, jewels

Almost new with tips for the unwary

Where we saw someone renting a cider press

Something we’d twice done in years before

In houses where we’d lived with neighbor stress

Before finding a haven and needing no more

            

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2026