DAY 100 - Parlez Vous Triage?

photo courtesy of gambier20 at flickr commons

I don’t speak French
but used to really like the word “triage”

I’m attracted to order,
and maximizing good, comforts me

then I grew up,
began to know and feel
my connectedness to all things

finally saw the battlefield that lies around us
bombs and napalm
loneliness and fear
hunger and disease
violence and torture
ecosystem poisoning

for some, each day is a triage
for water, food, and shelter

interestingly, many of us,
who are not living hand-to-mouth,
turn from,
or don’t see the bloodier battlefields
and instead, each day
triage work and income
the car and the water heater
a relationship strained
sciatica or headache
the lure of sugar
laundering clothes
brushing teeth
falling into bed
struggling to get up,
the alarm squawking

triaging is not a relaxed endeavor for me
yet calm is one of the wounded that must survive
hope, another

and why is it,
that so many folks use drugs, alcohol and video?
oh ...

can we stay on our feet?
conscious enough to move beyond war?
to come together in love?
combine our energies to heal our world?

yes, we can!

it’s either that,
or the hamster wheel for all of us,
‘till the rain of radiation

Note to all dear readers: while writing “Parlez Vous Triage”, I worried that in sharing my struggles with life, that you might read it to mean that I am near a tipping point, and that you might feel distressed. I am not near the edge. I am simply trying to stay aware and in contact with the world, and those who suffer. There is enormous beauty all around me. I am soaking up the pervasive good vibrations, while trying to help us stay out of the ditch. All is well.