Something Profound Today

Something profound is bound to

happen today. Could be at home or

away, something natural or man

made, something profound or not,

either way, good or bad, who can

say, ? I’ll just sit right here and hang

out waiting in my place. Hope it’s a

slow motion happening in any case.

Have a hard time keeping up the

pace in my old age. Whatever it is,

should it involve me and I happen

to be on the toilet—profound my

ass, it’ll have to wait.

                      -30-

Chris Hanch 9-15-2022 

Cellularly Speaking

 

My cellular makeup has been

undone and remade over and

again in this lifetime of mine.

In effect, I am more or less than

the man I used to be. And given

the realm of possibility, it is truly

amazing that I ever came into

uniquely being me in the first place.

14-billion years in the making

since the Big Bang began its

cosmic expansion from virtually

nothing to all this matter is mind

blowing to say the least.

For those of us who are fortunate

enough to grasp the improbability

of this and all the stuff that ever

was, one must consider a single

cell when placed comparatively

side by side with all the other

living cells.

En masse, my cells must make

me a parallel universe unto my

own. What, given the matter

of all creation and quantum

physics wise, is up with that?

                     -30-

Chris Hanch 9-14-2022

"It"

As an infant I awoke

and I cried but, did not

know why? Hunger,

I suppose, a full diaper,

discomfort, could be?

Time and place had

no meaning to me.

No wonder, there

were no words or

memories yet to

describe what “it”

was, what “it”

could possibly be.

I was what I could

not see, not yet

formed into my

own universal reality.

And now at age 75,

nearing the end of life,

“it” was me, the “it”

I came to be, all

those words and

memories I learned

over time. “It” I

have come to learn

must come to an end

for you, for me, for

all that ever was, all

that shall ever come

to be. There will be

no “its” in eternity,

no peace, pain, no

turmoil or serenity.

Just as in the

beginning, no words

or memories to describe.

No sunrise to

open the eyes, and no

“it” to wonder, why?

              -30-

Chris Hanch 9-12-22

 

Some Day Over the Rainbow

The sun rose cockeyed today.

Crows fly backwards in a misplaced sky.

The limbs of trees cut the tune into ¾ time.

Cord wood has been maliciously maligned.

There is no rhyme to reason to end the line.

Two plus two no longer add up to four.

Upside down, all the windows and doors.

The rancher changed course and was

quartered by the horse. Topsy turvy the

mince meat pie. The season to end all reason

was chosen by the malfeasant conductor

of the Late Late Show. Gothic became

agnostic during the mid-term and no one

could explain. Glue lost its bond and

refused to hold on. You and I have not a

clue as to why things are the way they are.

The podiatrist awoke one morning denying

the existence of toes. Pass the mustard, my

reasoning is half-baked. The magistrate misplaced

his car keys and his whole day went to hell in a

hand basket. You ordered pastrami and discovered

too late that the butcher gave you corned beef

instead. It was then you realized you got up

club-footed on the wrong side of the bed.

There are no do-overs, my friend. Live with it!

After the Reformation nothing was ever the

same again. It’s no wonder old men tend to

succumb to incontinence. Here, pull my finger.

                                       -30-

Chris Hanch 9-9-2022 

Those Were the Days

 

I was 15 when I first got drunk on vodka at a

friend’s house when his parents were gone for the

evening. Some say, boys will be boys. My hangover

and my mother’s admonition the next day told me

that I had made a big mistake.

I was 16 when I was fed up with school and society,

and left high school never to return. Some say it was

too early. And I felt it was too late.

I was 17 when I enlisted in the Army with my mother’s

reluctant approval. I gave her no choice, refusing to go

back to school. I was just a kid who swore and oath to

the Constitution. Now my “ass belonged to the drill

sergeants” which controlled my fate.

I was 19 and still wet behind the ears when I got married

and had my first child. Not knowing who I was and hoped

to become, I was immature and not prepared to face the

errs of my way.

Fast forward and given the constraints of time let it be said,

I had a long road to hoe getting here to where I am today

in my 75^th year. And as the old adage may apply, better

late than never.

I suppose given patience and time, certain grapes ferment into

a fine vintage wine. Suppose then you could classify my life

more like the Thunderbird variety—a brand widely known by

urchins of the streets to have a kick-ass potency. Ah, but you

be the judge...Here, take a swig from the bottle of my life and

see, unmistakably a bitter bouquet, and on the pocketbook,

frugally pretty damn cheap.

                                               -30-

Chris Hanch 9-8-2022

Passage in Time

 

He, the old man, sat there in his

wheelchair noticing the elderly

woman across the room seated

in hers. It’s late and the day is

waning. He imagined the woman

years younger and wonders about

the life she may have had forty,

fifty, sixty years ago. Married with

several children, he’s guessing, or

perhaps single, committed to a

career? He bets she was a looker

in her day, pursued by many a

would-be-suitor. It’s of little or no

consequence now, he figures, for

too many years have passed before

the curse of old age had set in. Ah

sweet memories, all a flash in the

pan now. No regrets, though, they

did then what could be or that

which needed to be done.

Now here they were breathing

in and out as yet another long

day of enchanted and repulsive

memories comes to an end.

She sat alone, white-haired and

wrinkled in her chair across the

room. And he seated gruff and

rumpled in his time in place.

Neither of them with a single

word to convey. Orderlies came

and escorted them off to dinner.

Goddamned liver and onions again!

                            -30-

Chris Hanch 9-5-2022

Who Got Us Here?

Explorers got us here

Inventors, writers, poets too.

Kings, queens, warriors and

madmen played their parts.

Let us not forget the scientists

and philosophers, the artists

composers and musicians.

Saints and sinners paved

all the way to this day.

I could go on and on with

this litany, adding the names

of specific men and women

who did and did not do

the dastardly and amazing

feats throughout mankind’s

illustrious history who put

us in this place and time in

which we reside today. Think

of the mothers and fathers who

gave us life in the first place.

Think of the rich and famous

the unknown and uncelebrated

likes of you and me. Several

years ago,I basked on a sunny

beach in Australia wondering

what got me halfway around

the world from where I came.

I was amazed and overwhelmed

by it all, and could only go back

a generation or two. But I was

struck with the thought that

somewhere way back when,

Alexander the Great and Napo-

leon Bonaparte and many years

later, some unrecognized nobody

from Pulaski Boulevard in

Chicago somehow played a part.

We did not get here alone and on

our own, you know.

                      -30-

Chris Hanch 9-4-2022