It’s dark and cold

Hope is high for lights warm glow

Lake ice holds fast

There’s so much I’ve yet to know.

Dennis Mantin

I’ve seen him for years, maybe decades… Something is wrong, maybe mental illness… He’s digging through a trash bin in Chinatown, looking for…

I offer him a 10, thinking he might want to eat.

He looks at the money and emphatically says, “NO!”

This is a first… and although I don’t understand his methods, he has my respect. A modern day Diogenes?

Reminds me of what Captain Willard said about Kurtz…

“I don’t see a method. ”

Dennis Mantin

March brought the lamb with promise of a lion, however for that we must exercise patience…

Waking and realize happiness; made my way to lunch with a 7 year old who said, “Tell me a story Daddy.”

It is the best of times!

Dennis Mantin

The sun returned today

Bouncing yellows off the snow

Blinding warmth

Eyes closed

Remembering

Dennis Mantin

It all ground to a halt under the weight of work and cold on a snowy February night.

I gave in and started reading Bukowski who seemed the perfect balance for a politically corrupted world.

Chinaski came in Lydia who screamed, “You son-of-a-bitch! We’re shackjobs now!”

Ah a simpler time…

Dennis Mantin

I can be invisible now, seconds after walking into the room.

The trick is staying silent and controlling the volume of the laughter.

One burst of guffaw and they see me; if only for a moment… before the eyes glass over and the thought of, ‘is that old bastard laughing at us?’ is lost moments later to the next wise diatribe.

The entertainment appears endless however this too is an allusion as they too will grow past this stage and I will be somewhere else.

I have earned this I tell myself…

It could be I’m just blessed.

Dennis Mantin

It’s a hard swallow on a bitter pill.

To see the task at the base of the hill.

Wait for answers you sit down until.

The hero arrives with heroes skill.

Shows the way, his time does fill.

Keeps the secret that time can kill.

Your precious life against your will.

Where we go who pays the bill?

The truth you ask when you are still.

If not God then speak and spill.

Dennis Mantin

The snow came and stayed again, past its welcome.

The sleet and slush arrived unannounced and refused to leave despite many hints.

The sun is there in a grey sky, being compromised and hidden by clouds of manipulation, mist and deception.

We are ripe for change.

Dennis Mantin

This is foreign to me in all aspects.

Satisfied Peaceful Calm Happy Confident Quiet Energized…

This is life at 60.

Are you sure this will pass?

Dennis Mantin

It was more than just a time and place to skate and swim.

I suspect we all need such experiences.

Because I rarely dwell there…

I wonder now… at the relief I must have felt to feel that safe.

I never said Thank You for allowing me to transition from the sorrow and the madness of childhood.

I know you never knew…

Thank you.

Dennis Mantin