Waiting Too Long

(a burning haibun)

Why do we wait until it is too late to ask questions of those we love.

By the time we think to inquire they have passed on taking a past life with them.

The pursuit of happiness, that inalienable right, seems to shroud our thinking

Filling our days with work and play and little time for reflection or listening

Leaving aging parents with memories and a vault of treasures never perused.

*

I was much the same way, waited too long, till my sixties to dig up the past.

Stories I had filed away over for years until it was almost too late to ask.

I did keep journals for a few memoirs to pass on to my sons.

I sometimes wish the grandchildren were asking questions before winter’s freeze.

But, the pattern seems to continue as the next generation tends to wait too long.

We wait too late to ask

Those we love

To inquire of

A past life

*

Pursuit of Happiness

Shrouds thinking

Work, Play

Little time to reflect

To listen

Aging parents’

Treasures never perused

******

I waited too long…

Wrote journals published memoirs

Wish Grands ask questions

Dwight Roth grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He taught elementary school in Eastern North Carolina before retiring after 29 years. Now he lives with his wife Ruth, near Monroe, NC, and spends his time painting and writing. He has self-published several books that are found on Amazon Kindle. He is also published in past Old Mountain Press Anthologies. A book of poems called Ebb and Flow and a children’s book on Alzheimer’s called Grandpa Has Holes in His Head are his latest creations. Ebb and Flow is only available in hard copy from the author at dwru27@aol.com

Feature Photo Created by Andy Oldham using FlatAI