O at the Edges

Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.

Not Blame Your Pleasure

Posted on November 24, 2018 by robert okaji

Not Blame Your Pleasure

Because vision limits options, I close my eyes.

Becoming urges patience.

The morning after I didn’t die, I took breakfast in bed.

Arrival stamps the difference between waiting and choice.

Expectation, too, extends its squeeze, rendering sleep impossible.

I ride the bike and go nowhere, or walk steadily, covering the same ground.

Which will claim me first? An occlusion, gravity or unchecked growth?

Anticipation replaces one sigh with another: I have three falls from two roofs.

A friend has named me executor of his estate, and now the race is on.

The path to the void seems straight only near its end.

My ashes will one day soil someone’s morning.

“Not Blame Your Pleasure” first appeared here in November 2015.

16 thoughts on “Not Blame Your Pleasure”

crow on November 23, 2018 at 10:21 am said:

An excellent rumination on mortality.

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- robert okaji on November 23, 2018 at 10:26 am said:
  
  Thanks, Charles. Mortality was much on mmy mind when I wrote this…
  
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bigskybuckeye on November 23, 2018 at 10:38 am said:

Thanks for your input on my poem. Your poem is thought provoking and makes me wonder about the future, too.

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- robert okaji on November 23, 2018 at 11:43 am said:
  
  I’m glad it resonated with you.
  
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V.J. Knutson on November 23, 2018 at 5:14 pm said:

“Becoming urges patience” – it sure does. Experience also alters perception. This is quite contemplative.

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- robert okaji on November 23, 2018 at 8:27 pm said:
  
  Thanks, V.J. There’s no substitute for experience!
  
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rothpoetry on November 23, 2018 at 9:18 pm said:

We are no longer feeling quite as invincible as we once were…… Very Good Poem Bob!

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- robert okaji on November 24, 2018 at 3:58 am said:
  
  Thanks, Dwight. That’s certainly the truth!
  
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Raven Knighte on November 24, 2018 at 1:54 am said:

Awesome reflection on one’s time in the mortal coil. Well done!

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- robert okaji on November 24, 2018 at 4:00 am said:
  
  Thanks very much!
  
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derrickjknight on November 24, 2018 at 2:57 am said:

Quite some ‘intimations of mortality’

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- robert okaji on November 24, 2018 at 4:26 am said:
  
  What a single brush with death will do!
  
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I_am_fisidinho on November 25, 2018 at 2:01 am said:

Stirring up my write ups okaji…this is excellent

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- robert okaji on November 25, 2018 at 7:01 am said:
  
  Thanks very much!
  
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Jazz Jaeschke on December 5, 2018 at 1:10 pm said:

Encouraged by your 3 falls sfrom 2 roofs … having just crashed (from lower height) onto concrete driveway which occurred with a distinct “bang” – surprised to discover nothing broken despite black eye and chin. Perhaps I have at least 2 to go?

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- robert okaji on December 5, 2018 at 5:05 pm said:
  
  At least two! And I’m glad we have a one-story house. Ouch! Black eye and chin! Glad you’re okay.
  
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