Drawn and Quartered

By Mary E. Adair

I always read pirate stories
Tales filled with daring and gore
So drawn and quartered should have gone
As have the days of yore.

However we find such conflict
In scheduling our lives today
That phrase somehow crept to light
As I try to find the right way.

We don't really use the old hat
To sort the bills we receive
But let conscience decide what's best...
Easy decisions, or so I believe.

It is when it comes to Holidays,
And invites here and there,
And real world obligations,
There's new meaning to Time share.

So as I prepare to head eastward
For surgery needed, not desired,
Leaving one daughter behind to join
The one who in business is mired,

My mind leaps to companionship...
But where? oh, where is that guy
Who shares my board and bedding--
Tending to those duties he can't deny.

But nimbly my mind leaps ahead
To plan, arrange, and direct others...
Have to depend upon sisters
As the folks gave me no brothers!

A definite plan may go awry...
Isn't that what they say?
But surgeons with scapels in hand
Must first have their own way.

Standby to be ready to go
For one who hates flexibility
Is not the plan he would choose
But is within sister's ability.

As a last resort, perhaps required
There is always the Greyhound Bus
And someone will happily meet him
Then He and I will again be Us.

So off I go to torture and pain
At least so it seems to me
For logical ability was not in the tests
Undergone for the soon misery.

So what does it come down to
Being pulled toward so many places?
First off being isolated in my room
With a derth of familar faces.

So what to do? When and How?
Trying to plan for our lives...
Drawn and Quartered might be better,
Because me? I break out in Hives!

© November 15, 2003 Mary E. Adair