A POET'S PROPOSAL IN THE BUCKET SUITS THE DAY

LET'S DO WHAT WE ALWAYS DO

This poem perfectly suits the events of today.

A Proposal

by Carl Dennis

Why don't we set aside for a day
Our search for variety and have lunch
At the same café where we had lunch yesterday
And order the same avocado and Gouda sandwich
On whole wheat bread, toasted and buttered?

Why don't we stroll again after lunch
To the river and back? I'll be glad to interpret
Your wearing the blouse you wore yesterday
As a sign you're still the person I think you are,
That this is the walk you want to take,

The one you didn't get your fill of before.
And later, why don't we hope for a sunset
That duplicates the valiant effort of yesterday:
Enough clouds for the light to play with,
Despite a haze that dims the hues?

Isn’t the insight worth repeating
That the end of the day may show itself
To be just as colorful as the beginning,
That a fine beginning isn't a veil
That the end is destined to strip away?

The same words, but yesterday
They may have sounded a little tentative,
As if we weren't sure we were ready
To stand behind them. Now if we choose
To repeat them, it means we are.

Today without planning to we enacted this poem. 

It was a gorgeous unseasonal warm sunny day in March in Pawtucket.  After a visit from the nurse and another from my favorite physical therapist I felt a resurgence of energy and I said the  magic  words to my husband  LETS GO OUT FOR LUNCH.

He immediately agreed and changed from slippers to shoes.  We went down the steps and  with the help pf my  cane  I went tot he car and got into the driver's seat.

I drove us through Slater Park where the trees are still "bare ruined choirs."  But the scene was lively with  walkers and their dogs and  I drove out  to the KFC. We got a  lunch to split and went  back to the park and stopped by the pond and watched the  antics of the ducks.

 After we finished our lunch,  I drove out of the park and was inspired to visit two cemeteries.    
First we went to Oak Grove on Central  Avenue which was quite close. I drove by the  gate house and wished I had the resources to restore it. Then I drove around and tried to find the remnants of Bucklin Brook that  someone had posted about online. 
 I love the old Civil War era  stones --one in particular  affects me because it  has the image of a sinking ship carved on white marble and it honors the over 300 men who drowned at sea. I always stop there and admire that stone and say a prayer for  them. They gave so much.

Then thinking of how enhanced the old historical  place would look with an alley of blooming dogwoods  near the entrance, I drove out. 

 I wanted to  see the Historical Cemetery on Mineral Spring  Avenue  which hold many Jenks or Jenckes graves-- my family  ancestors.

So we drove there and it has a gate and a small gate house--but again I wished  it were  fully painted and made  useful. And again I  picture flowering trees --maybe pears along the  roadside entrance.  I thought how that would make it  much more lovely. And how  good it would  be to plant some flowering shrubs, maybe hydrangeas, in the circle around the hill that has the statue of the Union soldier and the graves of Civil War dead.

This is how I spent the afternoon drive and this is a  route and a fantasy that I have  often entertained.  I hope that I  find the   courage to approach the Mayor and make a serious proposal.

I think that we can judge a  community by how we remember and honor our dead.