Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Base ten creatures

What is it about our brains working in increments of five?  Today a friend mourns and celebrates her husband who died fifteen years ago.  December and January bring up Dad and Mom*s death (15 and 5, respectively).  Wedding anniversaries are celebrated at the fives with precious stones.  What*s so special about fifty?  And what makes us all think the goal of life is to live to be 100?

What is it about the fives and tens?
Five years since Mom died,
Fifteen years for Dad.
My sister says
He still visits her and sits quietly
Like he always did.
She says he still visits me.
Maybe so.

I think sweet sixteen,
Twenty-one as the age of maturity
Were named to get us
Thinking differently.
I also thinK
They are a diversion.
We are base ten creatures.
The five year anniversaries zap us
Like no others.

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