“Moment”

 

c. 2024 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(1-24)

 

 

In the moment I am

Lost and lusting for a memory trip

A punchy, provocative time slip

That will let me now escape the wages of sin

In the moment I am

Waylaid and kicked to the curb

A thought rudely deterred

Before the new day begins

A beer called U Save a lot

Drinking in the parking lot

With ranch hands and baseball fans

I might have thought better, but did not

I stepped out like a fool

Violating my workplace rules

Johnny-on-the-spot

 

In the moment I was

A goof giddy with the chance to fail

A pull on the donkey’s tail

That makes the beast bray and kick

In the moment I was

Easily diverted from the cause

Stumbling off the trail of Santa Claus

Unaware of his magic trick

Flying ‘round the world, wickedly fast

In a sled stuffed with seasonal glass

A jukebox playing Rock & Roll hits

I took my roll of the dice

As a privilege to skate across the ice

Twirling, trolling

With a knit cap and matching winter mitts

 

In the moment I reclined

Stepping out of the literal dimension

A fowl flung on a skyward ascension

Wings aflutter and spread wide as can

In the moment I reclined

With a wisp of pipe smoke lofted up

A swirl of black in my coffee cup

Evidence of this reckless age of man

I used to think it was true

That anything both bold and new

Was a gift given to those who believe

It made me sure

That the sunset could not completely conceal

Spokes on the bicycle wheel

While riding toward the crest of a mountain peak

 

This day is done

Ride into the sun

Tell me true, are you having fun?

Your answer will say everything I need to hear

A finger raised as a solo salute

Zipped into an asylum suit

Whistling through a plastic flute

While grasping, groping, grinding gears

 

In the moment, I defer

From responsibilities unchecked

Chicken feed poked and pecked

Spread across the yard like a bounty of corn

In the moment I defer

To the luck of someone better off

Though the wise men scold and scoff

While I wait for the coming of morn

I’ve been here

For such a long time that my fingers went numb

My hopeless head went deaf and dumb

That tempted the muse to cease her song

I fell among the thorns

Carried off on the sharpest bull horns

Dangling from a pointed prong

 

In the moment

The winds of torment

In the moment

A rebellion that useful idiots foment

In the moment

Swim and stroke and cough and choke

In the moment

Mirrors and smoke

In the moment

A pig in a poke