O is for On My Own

On my own
I have had
A leaky roof,
A flooded bathroom,
A water heater leaking gas,
A crashed hard drive,
Thousands of dollars in medical bills
A lawsuit over business assets,
Debts to you your friend refused to pay,
Squirrels in the attic,
A possum in the bathroom,
A broken nose,
A hysterectomy,
Carpal tunnel surgery,
Cataract surgery
Vertigo,
And a hornet sting.

I’ve also had
A new car
The garage restored
The house repainted
A garden planted
Articles in anthologies,
A new book published
A trip to France
Visits to the Alhambra,
Troy and Galipoli
My picture on a calendar,
A blog with over fifty followers,
A date,
My hair grown longer,
My hair cut shorter,
And my seventy-fifth birthday.

There have been
Spring meadows sprinkled with bluebonnets,
Summer afternoons dazzled by heat
Autumn doorbells rung by trick-or-treaters,
Winter twilights, hazy and dim—
And all without you.
Yet I still go on
And on.