Endings Are Beginnings

The heart can keep emotions straight?
So tenuous is this task.
My friend was in my home of late
but now that's in the past.

There was a time with tool in hand
that photos made with flair
Could open mouths and cause to stand
onlookers wondering stare.

Why did we lose six feline friends
in little o'er a year?
Why did a fox remove a hen
and cause our hearts to fear?

I've known careers in teaching school,
I've played piano oft,
As gardener life's really cool
as DeeJay, heart aloft.

In recent years I've come to write,
to paint and work with threads
I've wondered much about my sight
"Have missed the way?" is dread.

Experience and wisdom's friends
can give insight that leads
The ways of life do not us rend
but what's inside us bleeds.

The bleeding's not that life may take
but shows the life that is
For what's inside comes out the wake
Life's slices rend to give.

We lose a pet. This breaks the heart.
A loved one is no more.
Yet, safe's the bet that new's the start
all may a hope implore
from us whose debt and broken parts
make gifts our heart's new store.

by Jay O'Toole
on July 18, 2016, 12:30 AM, EDT