There's a Pattern

Not that it was an unproductive day,
just not as productive as the day before.
Cindy sends thank-you notes to interviewers
on fine paper cards, not on legal-sized paper.

She frets about the gold trim on the cover
and won’t use a stamp with a Stanley Steamer.
Next door Mandy writes self-help books.
The pattern of your life is there for you to find.

They seem to need the plow to clear the drive.
You don’t often see golf courses covered in snow.
A little dog on a porch yaps at a big one.
It’s everyday events like this that charm me.

The manure was overturned in the spring.
The old boy’s train set was gutted.
In the golden age, how it could clear tunnels.
But a hobby shop outside of town was iffy.

They used to clear the train tracks just for fun.
John-boy never wanted to be in the business.
He kept raising the stakes when he gambled.
–so your husband was a peace officer in the next town?

That’s funny! Mine was the fish and game warden.
–so he arrested two teens on an Oxycontin charge?
That’s funny too! My husband caught two poachers.
They stupefied the deer with their headlights.

--Isn’t life crazy? There are so many incidents
that don’t coincide but happen in parallel fashion.
You could be arranging flowers on the screen porch
while I could be raking leaves or doing dishes,

or while you knit I could be taking a nap
and dreaming that I was in a long corridor
with a sibling while you shake a carpet outside
or I could feed the cat while you’re in your Subaru

admiring the cathedral pines bearded with icicles
on the way to Home Depot while I wrestle with a problem.
And to think our neighbors do things as well
while we do other things! I can’t account for that!

They may divorce, may reconcile, may be on their way
to their houseboat or to the ski resort
and we can’t keep count of the deeds they do
while we perform these other deeds. There’s this thing

called Time I used to think was discontinuous
but actually it flows and contains all of us, our neighbors
and other people unlike us. I read about it
in Parade. No, that’s not it. The History Channel.

If time is a place where we all do things at once,
then why have I never heard about it all my life?
I feel I’ve missed the boat, this time flowing about me
like water flows around the boat to reconvene

at the stern. I feel like the last passenger at the station,
but that if I learn any more I will explode
and an entirely different form of energy will be created,
one no scientist can understand or barely fathom.