Life’s Little Misdirections 🥀🦋

Stew This Evening

What I Stew About

She thanked me for the stew
she made
because I provided the meat,
potatoes, carrots and seasoning
she combined --
meat seared,
potatoes and carrots boiled
in separate pots,
combined together in the blue
roasting pan she placed
in the oven.
At 350 degrees, waited,
then removed the lid,
because of the special gravy
she created from
ingredients I bought
(per her instruction)
from the grocer.

The stew thickened
with the sauce,
and she said, ‘Thank you’?
for her stew? So,
I thought:

Would an astronaut
thank the government
for procuring the parts
to build the rocket
that launched them into
orbit, after they put their lives
in the hands of
scientists and specially trained
technicians who built a dream
from special ingredients?
tried and tested
with expert knowledge
to fly a craft directly at stars?
navigate space beyond,
outside our planet and arrive
at a floating construct,
gravitationally obedient,
space station to dock,
to remain as trusted scientists?
Waiting for another mission,
billions invested in outcome
of precision technology,
successfully launch and arrive
to relieve and retrieve them
for another presumed
successful mission home?
to a planet that could
suddenly and immediately
collapse from something bigger --
economic devastation to
an eradicating world virus,
stranding them in wondrous
space, aboard a silent craft
destined for nothing
but an eternal, cold walk?

Say thank you to a government
that would recruit you,
train you and trust them
with your care?

Yes.

You’re welcome, and thank you
for your sacrifice
to prepare US supper.


10.6.20

To my nominators: This is a long, free verse (unstructured) poem (66 lines).
-Stew

Thank You to my MIL for this poem.
Some one wrote 'You are loved' once in my notebook and I launched a similar reverie:

STATIC

Efflorescence Song  (E) A higher love exists when you're alone amid nature. #2085912 by He’s Brian K Compton