the gift of an hour

Being grateful for small things...how about getting an extra hour to spend or save. I was blog-surfing (is there such a phrase?) just now. When you look at most blogs...you see a link on the bar at the top that says "next blog." It seems that about 50% of the time when I click on that tab I get a blog with some collection of photos, about 30% of the time I get a blog that is not written in English, and about 30% of the time I get a blog that appears to be a family chronicle with pictures of happy kids and family outings...invariably the blog is written by the Mom. (Where are all those families on picnics?). OK...some of you readers are now saying...ha! that adds up to 110%, this guy can't even pick 3 numbers to add up to 100. Why am I wasting my time here...I'll just hit "next blog" and move on. Well, big deal, big deal... I did it on purpose; life and time are never so precise... Anyway, every once in awhile you get a treasure...an interesting blog or a wacky blog or a blog about visits to cemeteries all over eastern Europe, etc. (and now, you are thinking...this guy can't even spell "cemetaries"... well, again, if it's that big an issue, move on...

While we are talking about other blogs...I also notice that many blogs, with nothing more than family trivia, i.e. writing about going to the post office or grocery store or burning the lasagna and having to eat hamburger helper instead... have 286 followers...not that I am complaining nor comparing...but, come on... I have six followers, and I think one or two of them are "spam" that hack on to every blog ...I am going to submit this blog for the title of "least followed blog" and see if I can win something. I am trying to get my cat to sign up as a follower, but he's off in the corner pawing "next blog" on his laptop. (Truthfully, though, I am always touched by the "comments" that appear, and I know that you, too, are reading this, even as I lament about it...so...heck...I am even grateful for the two spam followers).

So, while blog surfing, I found this poem...I think the person writing the blog wrote the poem, and I like it. I like the poem, and I like the idea of it, and I'll think about it this Sunday morning at 2AM (in my dreams).

Fall Back

It’s returned, that hour lost last April,
slipped in at 2am while a half-moon gleamed
in the pine. Hovered while I slept,
unclaimed angel, tick-tock.
But I don’t desire to use it yet —
I want to be selfish, I want to hoard.
I want to tear it into ten-minute bits,
fold one into my wallet for the late appointment,
one in the vegetable bin when lolla rosa
need last until supper. Under my pillow
to extend the dream, in the oven to slow
Quick Yellow Cake. I’ll give one to my son
to get out of jail free. And one
I’ll bury in the garden in eternal plastic,
mark an X with apples. Maybe
I’ll forget it’s there. And just maybe,
in the next century someone will unearth
a ten-minute treasure, spend it lavishly.

copyright 2010 T. Clear