The Poetry Marathon

Switching between one passion to the next.

One pays the bills, the other feeds the soul.

Going back from turning a chicken breast to pulling bread from the oven, then back to writing a line or two.

If you would have asked me before, I’d say it was impossible.

Yet, with the knowledge I have of cooking times and cleaning in between, it makes it possible to handle so many tasks.

Yet, there’s one problem; my brain hurts now!

As well as sweating like a dog in heat and trying not to burn my hands and other extremities.

But how lucky am I?

I get to devote part of my time to living both my passions at the same time.

This is my life and I’m glad to say, I can still fulfill both needs. To feed people and feed souls.

Running short on time

each moment getting way too close.

I will not be stopped.

Born again, like learning to reopen my eyes.

Funny how you can live your whole life seeing one way of thinking.

How you can supposedly shield yourself from the sins of humanity.

All the while, little do you realize that you’re the biggest offender.

Closed off to any new ideas that may shatter the bubble you live in.

Then one day your mind is opened.

Your eyes that once saw sin, see heathens in a whole new light.

Different actions played out by differing situations you never were enlightened to before.

I am born again, eyes opened and mind clear.

A whole new world before my newborn eyes.

Work and poetry,
The two are incredibly hard
To mix together.

Killer culinary concocter,
Easy mode set to feed
gourmetgasms.
Like a top shot always on
point.
Tricky skills school my cuisine.
All his presentations dwarf
mine.
No stopping the big white
beast.

Took thirty minutes

to get to where my job is.

This will have to do

All we are, is dust in the wind dude.

From ashes we came, to ashes we will return, why not in the mean time, try to spark something?

Why should we be ashamed of the light we exude if we are all responsible for lighting each other’s way.

No light, no matter how great or small, is without importance.

We’re all in the dark somehow.

Whether it be because of doubt or uncertainty, we all need a little light.

Because before ashes are reduced to their final state, they are at one point embers.

All of us dancing in unique patterns, following the wind to our own melody.

So light a fire wherever you go, spark within another the burning drive to never quit wanting to learn and grow.

For if we are all one day reduced to ash and dust, why not help another find their way home?

When you have high standards, hardly anything seems good enough.

When you have my standards, even the way I breathe sucks.

My nose sounds like an emergency whistle when I inhale.

My dishes look like Barney took a big purple dump on the plate.

My cakes don’t look level enough for me.

When you have my standards, even compliments come with the back thought of “Do they really mean it?”

Every time punch is riddled with the questions…..

What didn’t I accomplish?

Was that chicken cooked enough?

Did I clean the kitchen well enough?

the answer….:

A RESOUNDING NO!

What you didn’t you accomplish?

Try everything you set out for!

Was that chicken cooked well enough?

No! That person is going to die and you will be fired.

Did I clean the kitchen well enough?

you can’t be clean!

Your food is abysmal, your plating looks too bland and boring.

Everything needs to be perfect and spotless!

You must learn everything new in a quick manner because you are not worth the effort or time!

There is no room for error, because everyone else is superior and you have to be perfect just to stay afloat!

I think I may need to lower the bar….

If I were to tell you that everything would be okay, you would call me a dead dog liar.

If I were to explain to you that you would be married before you were 35 and cooking at a hotel for people large and small, you’d most likely say I was telling stories.

But hear us out, believe us when we say it won’t rain forever.

And believe me, being a chef in the kitchen during summertime, you’ll wish for rain.

Believe us when we say, you’ll kiss a girl and she’ll actually want to kiss you again.

You won’t have children, but you will realize, offspring don’t  necessarily make a family.

You will learn the hard way, that the world owes you nothing.

If you want something, you can’t pussyfoot around and expect it to fall in your lap.

You have to take it, but without being a bully.

But not to worry.

Don’t overthink it.

You will be just fine.

We promise.

Love,

Us

I remember the day we got married.

It didn’t snow like we had hoped so we could get our wedding rings for free, but it was cold regardless.

I got the question that so many grooms get before the altar.

“So are you nervous?” My brother asked.

Out of so many years playing a role, out of so many days putting on a show, this of all felt the most natural.

I joked as I usually do, but this time there were no jokes, this one moment in time was void of a punch line.

I was ready.

I was ready to jump for her without worrying if there was any safety bet beneath.

She was my safety net, my life line, and it mattered not if I were to fall a thousand feet, she would be there.

Smile at the ready, telling me without a whisper “It’s okay to fall.”

It wasn’t a big wedding, no extravagant entrance, no pomp and ceremony.

Just two people so in love that the only thing they cared about was the end result.

The moment when our first kiss as man and wife would be the last first kiss we’d ever take.

Of course you can’t have a wedding without something to commit to memory.

I dropped the ring.

Cursing the nail lady that did my wife’s nails, the photographer captured the whole thing in one shot.

I got it on the second try, but not without a red flushed face.

Nearly four years have gone by, each day its own new adventure and I can’t wait for the others.

Of all the plastic personalities and man made problems in this world, above all else, you and I will be one of the few purely natural.