by Steve Gaines

beginning today
the final year of labors…
in three hundred and sixty-five days of tomorrows
I will not come to work

all those single mornings
hang softly on the future
individual pieces of laundry
on the clothes line
waiting to be taken down
and folded
and put away… forever

then I will never wear this life again

an end to something
a new approach to waking up every morning

do I need to plan ahead?

nah!
I think I’ll just be surprised
that’s the way I’ve always done it
hanging just slightly afraid
on the turning of each new page

that way it’s all beginnings
and no endings!

it’s always going forward
one more new experience at a time
stretching out the next half of my life
for as long as it takes

and no more counting the days off!