Friday, October 11, 2013

When the ta fell off the toyo


It didn’t happen to us.
Not directly at least.
It was the guy ahead of us
as we were stopped at the intersection.
He advertised it shamelessly, for all to see.
I tried not to judge his negligence
(and the very use of that word
shows my lack of success),
but his example reminded me
of all the good intentions
and unfinished tasks
in my own reality.
It provoked reflection on the messiness
of life and brought mercy to the forefront
once again.
So—thank you to the driver
of that old Toyota.
May you find your missing ta
and, at some future date,
experience reconnection.

Hal is one of the funniest people I know. Usually it’s unintentional. He doesn’t tell jokes. This morning as he was driving me to the DMV so I could renew my (expired) driver’s license, he said, “Look at that! That guy’s ta has fallen off his toyo.”
“What did you just say?” I responded. If I didn’t know him any better I might have thought he was talking dirty. But he wasn’t. As soon as I figured it out and stopped laughing, I wrote the above poem. May it bring you great insight.

2 comments:

  1. Very funny! Unintentional funny is the BEST. My toyo still has its ta, but is missing a few paint chips. Ah, well......

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