OCTOBER 2023 -- Scarecrow

 

 

© 2023 LJR

 

 

There’s a nip to the air

As the leaves turn and fall

When the corn and the pumpkins are ripe

Squirrels cache seeds and nuts

Flocks of geese vee due south

Muskrats scurry to ready their dens

Deer bed down in thickets

Bears settle in snug caves

They all feel the change in the season

Yet someone’s not moving

As if he’s ignoring

All signs of this upcoming shift

Scarecrow stands all alone

Holding firm to his pole

Ready to face whatever may come

He’ll ignore rain and sleet

Brave the cold and the snow

Protecting what is close to his heart

For nestled in his chest

Lies a family home

Our scarecrow has found a new purpose.

 

 

AUGUST 2023 -- High School Reunion

 

© 2023 LJR

 

Those day of high school classes

Those days of tests and books

Those days when too much energy

Was focused on our looks

Now that we are older

We’ve found a better truth

Time has proved a leveler

We’ve grown beyond our youth

Now when we come together

There’s an overwhelming sense

We’ve all been burnished by life’s fires

Gone are posturing and pretense

We look beyond the gray hair

The wrinkles here and there

We look beyond old school cliques

At our age . . . no one really cares

It’s the faces we remember

The voices we recall

That certain bit of laughter

That reminds us of it all

So come, we’ll chat and visit

We’ll revisit high school days

Thankful for those memories

Yet glad those are yester-days