Laughing About It
there are times
that going to see the saw bones
can be quite the experience
“so, doc, how were the test results”
“oh, not so terrible but at this rate
you’ll be dead in a couple of years”
how do you react to that news
what kinds of things go through your mind
it’s amazing the way news like that
changes your day
changes your mind
changes your outlook
changes everything
.
that’s a lot of nights
a whole lot of days
many miles walked
contemplating the end
.
the images it brings to mind
are sure as hell nothing to take lightly
but it’s what I do
we all have to die
I’ll die like every other human ever
and I’ve already been told
I should take it more seriously
as if no one understands
if I can’t take this seriously
then I can’t take anything seriously
of course I am
but I’m not going to spend
every waking moment looking glum
and I’m going to deal with it how I deal with it
if I laugh about it
well, I guess I laugh about it
and if I remake my bed
so I can die in it comfortably
well, then I guess I remake my bed
this is my life
and it will be my death
whenever it comes
and I just might laugh about it
——————————————————–—————
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EMAIL: DoubleUPoet@outlook.com
Posted on January 6, 2016, in Poetry and tagged DoubleU, John White, Laughing About It, Poetry. Bookmark the permalink. 78 Comments.
DoubleU = W 
John. This is seriously sad and sounds very personal…is it true…just a thought in poem…or
what? Diana
Thank you, Diana! 🙂 It’s true unfortunately but nothing that can’t be lived with for quite a number of years provided I follow doctor’s orders. It’s great to meet you!
16 years ago, my doctor wanted to slash off a piece of my anatomy. I bought some herbs to slather on the spot and within a year, felt better. So many of them have that “god” complex. I say, do as you may…live life and enjoy it!
Thank you! 🙂 Oh sure sometimes they get it wrong and we need a good second opinion. Either way, I only have one choice – live while I’m alive. 🙂
Being dead should not cause anyone to worry, but, the actual process of dying does worry most of us. So the idea is to be prepared for the end because it comes to all.
Thank you! 🙂 Being dead won’t hurt at all. 😉 The fear is natural and human but instead of focusing on that fear, we can focus on living. 🙂
No one has an expiration date stamped on their foot. There is much more doctors don’t know than do know. Still, we must take good care of ourselves and enjoy all of our days.:0)
Thank you! 🙂 You’re right. If we had a “Use By” date that would be sad but it would also be good for some dark humor. 😉 It’s all about following their advice, doing the right things and living longer. It’s a pleasure to meet you!
You too, John. Be well.:0)
All the best to you as well! 🙂
John you are an incredible soul. Thank you for sharing your raw truth. Love and prayers sent to the skies for you my friend. You have a brave spirit and it is certainly full of life :))
Thank you! 🙂 You’re too kind. Really. 🙂
You are so welcome, it’s true and Im definitely not the only one who knows :))
Well, you were honest, so I’ll be..😭. I admire your attitude and ability to express in writing.
Thank you! 🙂 To put words on the page we have to be honest or the reason to write vanishes. It’s great to meet you!
There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think about death, a sort of mental calisthenics. Will that help when my time comes? I’ll find out, perhaps. But as I see the matter, still among living, death should be embraced, although I’m not suggesting one expedite the process. It’s just that it’s inevitable, right? After all, isn’t it death that which gives life any meaningful sense of worth? Without it, what’s life? And life really isn’t all that pleasant after all. At least I’ve not found it to be. All we can do it seems is make the best of it.
May you find peace.
Thank you, Peter! 🙂 You nailed it. Life is finite with a beginning, a middle and an inevitable end so we better live while we’re alive. 🙂
It’s a beautiful poem, John, but very sad to hear that it’s true. As a fellow author and poet, I feel a great comfort in knowing that I will have left footprints in this world that cannot be erased, which will endure throughout time, long after I’m gone. I hope you take comfort in that as well. A writer’s life is to be celebrated rather than mourned. And our accomplishments will be enjoyed forevermore. I hope to see many more of your accomplishments for years to come.
Thank you! 🙂 I agree. The mark may not be permanent but it can leave a mark before the sun can explode or the planets in our solar system can drift apart. Our honesty and sincerity as writers – well that’s something we can’t learn in a lit class. It’s great to meet you!
An indomitable great spirit continues his journey. All Light’s power to you, John.
Thank you, Juli! 🙂 You’re too kind. Here’s to all of us continuing on and enjoying this journey. 🙂
Life is just a role that we play only once, my father says. And then, I say, let’s live her triumph every day! Be strong, John! I am with you, dear friend.
Thank you! 🙂 Oh before we exit stage right we need to play our roles to the hilt. Live and enjoy. 🙂
It happen to me over the summer
Went to the chiropractor he said all kinds of stuff
Showed me my xrays
Never went back to see him
Bedside manor my ass
We will go together my friend
They say there’s a package deal for more than one
The Sheldon Perspective
Thank you, Sheldon! 🙂 Doctors can be good and bad. Oh, be honest with me of course but understand that I’m human too and don’t just throw some info at me with some clinical coldness. Either way, we have to muddle through, I guess. It’s good to see you back around these parts! 🙂
John, I can relate because I had the same conversation last year. Loved your thoughts. Laughter is something that makes me feel better every day. Its also good to take the edge off because so many people have trouble processing that information (family and friends). But once you laugh with them again, it makes it easier to get on with the LIVING. Best of luck to you John and a toast to all of us who hold each day special.
Thank you, Mike! 🙂 It can be too easy to upset someone by laughing or joking during tough times or dark times but it can sure help. It’s a pleasure to meet you!
In a recent FB post of a Peanuts cartoon (in French no less), Charlie Brown said, “One day we’re all going to die.” Snoopy’s retort, “Yes, but all the other days we get to live.” As one who relies on your poetic wisdom to make my daily life better–live long and prosper, John, and regardless of how annoying it is to be told so, follow your doctor’s orders. Or at least follow THIS doctor’s orders! Karen AKA Doc Flamingo
Thank you, Karen! 🙂 Snoopy is right. We’re alive for only o many days so we need to make the most of them. I’ve had to follow doctor’s orders almost to the point of being anal retentive. Thank goodness it’s helping. 😉
I love your attitude. I send prayers and I say laugh a lot cause they say it is the best medicine!
Thank you, Jolyn! 🙂 There’s nothing like a good laugh. 😉
Laughing at death means defeating it. This reminds me of John Donne’s Sonnet 10, one of my favorite poems.:) Years ago, when my friend was only 48, she was told she won’t live to be 50. So she tried to do everything she wanted to do before dying. Now at 60, she’s still doing everything she wants to do. Be well. 🙂
Thank you, Therese! 🙂 We never know when it might come but because we do know it’s coming we can live like crazy. 🙂
Be well John, I dig your positive attitude, and! your writing 🙂
Peace to you,
Laz
Thank you, Laz! 🙂 All the best.
I hope for you to have strength, love and joy for all the rest of your days!! 💜
Thank you! 🙂 Here’s to peace for everyone! ❤ It's great to meet you!
Very well written. I struggle to write about mortality….probably because I’m reaching an age where I think about it too much.
Thank you, Bob! 🙂 The Big Five Oh put me in that frame of mind – to think about mortality a lot. Live long and prosper I suppose. 😉
Live long and prosper indeed. Carry on writing and carry on breathing and, when you do eventually have to stop breathing, please post a blog to let us know! Stay happy John.
Thank you! 🙂 I’ll do that: write until my last breath and then come back all disembodied and blog my whereabouts and my final goodbyes just before I go out to explore the cosmos. 😉 It’s a pleasure to meet you!
You too, or U2, or Double U!
😉
I believe the hairs on our head are numbered as written in the Word of God – not because He makes it so – even though He certainly could – WHAM BAM….but maybe because He knows how we choose to live and what choices we make and anyway…I’m getting too deep and Im not prepared to explain myself, but I wonder how we would choose to live our days if we knew the exact date? Right? I would be a fearless bitch. Knocking it down. LOL, sorry my redneck came out….but, anyway…quality not quantity – that is the ticket.
Thank you, Stacy! 🙂 I’m not sure I want to know the date even if it’s possible. That might help to make us fearless but if we can find it in us to be fearless despite not knowing, then imagine what life can be. ❤ It's great to meet you!
right? I’m still working on that 🙂
Fear can impossible to defeat but all we can do is keep working at it. We’ll get there eventually. 🙂
John! They really can’t say things like that with any certainty. You have many more years to regale us with your poetry.
Thank you! 🙂 Oh, true, it’s only a guess. There’s still time for all of us so we can only set out to make the most of it. I sure want to. 🙂
I love the honesty with which you write. Please follow those doctor’s orders and stay well.
Thank you, Gitanjali! 🙂 You’re too kind. Oh, if I don’t follow his orders, he’ll be chewing me out and I sure don’t want him cursing at me. 😉
You said saw bones. I haven’t seen that in donkey’s years.
Well, your news is an interesting way to start the day.
Thank you, Sylvia! 🙂 Saw bones is a phrase I rarely hear used anymore. I’ve used it in conversation only to be asked what it means. 😉
Well that certainly does suck. I’m glad to see (on an earlier reply you made to a comment) than your condition can be managed. Follow doctor’s orders, Live long, and prosper. ❤️
Thank you, Mary! 🙂 Manageable and livable. I should still get where I’m going if I stand on the gas. 😉
Good to hear! 😀
😀
Thanks for sharing the positivity 🙂 So powerful and inspirational
Thank you! 🙂 You’re too kind.
Live your BEST life! ❤
Thank you! 🙂 You’re so right – choose it and live it. ❤ It's great to meet you!
You have reminded me of my mortality on reading your blog. Indeed stay well.
Thank you, Vince! 🙂 It’s always there to remind us but it can motivate us to remember we’re mortal.
As someone who is going to the doc in a couple weeks and being of a certain age and ailments, this hit home. Thank you for creating it and sharing it.
Thank you, Kevin! 🙂 Hope all is well. It’s great to meet you!
You, too.
Reblogged this on KCJones.
I am sad to read this post but take great joy in seeing how positive you are and you are right, we all need to live until we die. No one has a guarantee of tomorrow so let us all live and love in the now, the future will bring what it must…. much love and light to you. I look forward to reading your poems for many years to come. Michelle
Thank you, Michelle! 🙂 Today is all we have. Living in the past or worrying about tomorrow gains us nothing. 🙂
I have “interesting” medical problems, nothing short-term, fortunately. I won’t be concerned about my death until after it happens.
I’ve never heard “at this rate.” What would it mean?
Thank you, Alan! 🙂 Mine is an issue that developed over years meaning if I don’t follow doctor’s orders I might be looking at a major problem rather than something manageable. I hope all is well for you. 🙂
This one is particularly moving, tremendously sad. The death, sure, but most of all, the reaction, is intense. I wish you all the best.
Thank you! 🙂 It’s great to meet you!
All the same 🙂
By 78 I have held the hands of loved ones as they died, I have lived to laugh another day after a scary prognosis, I have been in enough prolonged pain to want to die, I have risen from that and experienced new life, and while I realize I can see the door from here and that getting through that door may be hard, there’s life’s greatest mystery on the other side. Sometimes I imagine my atoms being freed from the limits of my body, each containing my spirit and and Spirit, shooting joyously off into the farthest embrace of the curved edges of the glory of beauty, truth, and love….in other words, God.
Blessings…..we only have this moment…..and laughter is Carbonated Grace.
Thank you so much, Eileen! 🙂 As long as there’s breath in you, there’s reason to move forward and live. Here’s to a long, productive and loving life! ❤
Thank you! 🙂 It’s great to meet you!
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