Cherish Now

Angry.
I want to spit blood
in the faces of brain-dead people
who mouth platitudes,
who ooze sweet confectionery nothings
about the cherished memory of some dead relative.
Great-aunt Martha, for example,
who left dear, sweet Molly her prized what-ever.
Molly,
(who never bothered to visit her great-aunt
when she was bored to tears in the nursing home,
fighting with every arthritic bone
in her eighty-seven year old body
to stay alive
to see Molly graduate from college)
would have the audacity to befoul the word,
and her Great-aunt in the process,
all the while planning
to sell the precious what-ever
the first chance she she got.

Or 'so and so's' dearly departed Mother,
whom he never bothered to go and see,
(it was too far, he hadn't time,
it cost too much, he had better things to do)
relying instead up his poor, beleaguered sister
to take care of their parent
who was again as a child
and who did so because
'she was her momma'
and that simply was what one did
for a cherished family member.
Yet 'so and so'
would tell all who would listen
about his dearly departed and cherished Mom.

What is it about these people who just don't get it?
Cherish someone while they are here!
Enjoy Uncle's story for the umpteenth time
as if it were the first.
Someday you will bore someone else to tears!
Get down off your high horse!
It's a long way to fall.
People die. We all will die.
Most of us are forgotten after a generation.
Get over it.
Try being
a cherished person to someone else.
What a concept!
Be loving and thoughtful, be considerate.
Remember how your parents
(those of cherished memory)
brought you up.
How much better to honor someone's memory
by being the sort of person
who would have made them proud!
How much better to cherish their memory
while they are still alive
to appreciate your cherishing them!
How easy, after the fact,
to say empty words through toothy smiles.
It is too late then.

Now I know there are many people who truly do
cherish memories of their dearly departed,
growing teary eyed at grave visits
or laughing heartily at the story
of when Grandpa Whomever did that what-ever-it-was
and who will laugh
the same at the umpteenth telling
as they did when it happened.
There are those who truly do
cherish the memories
of their lost childhood friend,
their favorite dog or cat,
or treasured Gram or Gramps.

I cherish the fact that I am loved,
am able to love in return.
I cherish the little things, that over time,
become the granite cornerstone of memory.
Whether that be a dear friend
who tells of tagging along after his dad
or sipping a cup of coffee made just because
I was coming home or
a thank you note to someone
who stood resolutely by my side
when no one else bothered.
I cherish the living
and I let them know it-
I show it-
whether by word or deed-
And then later,
I have wonderful treasured memories
to take out, sort through,
examine and hold up to the sun,
and then carefully, lovingly,
pack away again in the attic of my heart.




But there are also those
who will huff and puff
and play indignant walk-on parts
claiming that I know not
of what I speak.
This very act condemns them.
It is to them I address my ire.
You know who you are.
You.
Yes, you who dare get angry at me.
I see you for what you are
and for all you aren't.
Cherish you? Perish the thought.