Dinner With Jerry
(for Dr. Jerry Ward)
those of us who understand the magnitude
of being deeply serious
in our life endeavors, who truly
comprehend the inevitability
of errors, the fickleness of chance
the utter impossibility of practical predictions
especially when one has learned to consider
the always ironic hilarity
of unintended consequences mocking
even our most reverent work
battered and weathered
as a result of our considerable strengths
in resisting mundane but copious
systemic bullshit and yet we continue
undeterred in our task of midwifing
human kindness toward one and others
as we shrug off the defeats, set-backs
and god ugly reverses
nastying so much of what passes
for daily life among colleagues and
other creatures of passing acquaintance those of us humble enough to accept
toiling without any where near equitable
compensation or even a modicum of real
recognition we are the ones who share
sunlight and shade with each other
small moments of beauty
when the weather is warm
the sun crepuscularly soft
the soup appropriately body temperature
for easy savoring
and the salad greens freshly gathered
with attractive garnishments of strawberry those of us briefly basking amid
the conviviality of obscure references
and intellectual challenges including
brusque and sometimes bawdy
critiques of certain bureaucracies, peers,
politicians and other opponents
among the plethora of fools
who unfortunately not only dot our
social landscapes, but also (and
inopportunely for us) some of them
have even attained positions of social
architect and other nefarious levels of authority those of us who can and do deal with all of this
and still continue to carve out an hour or two
a week to have our breaths embrace
as we taste the vintage sweetness
of our wry humor and the tangy sharpness
of our withering sarcasm we are the ones
who will never die nor despair
for lack of love even though despair is not an unknown taste
and death but a few doors down
the remaining years of our earthly existence nevertheless, we know an intimate
human eternalness mined from real love
shared with a fellow traveler as we press on in our pilgrimage
passing through these trying days and times
that mark the cosmic calendar of our lives
—kalamu ya salaam