Calculus

Outside there is fog. And fences.
Somewhere there are soldiers

guarding this abandoned place.
its secrets long ago removed.

Nothing here but raw walls,
loose wires, and graffiti.

The things left behind
when it has been decided

what is worth taking
and what is not.

For you, it is the interest
in what is not. What does not matter

and who and how
it is decided.

About this poem.

My church hosts a Feed the Hungry ministry. Four days a week, we provide two hot meals and other services to people, most of them homeless or abandoned in their need.

Like most people my age, I have been abandoned more than once. Lost jobs. Lost love. Unlike some, I have been given the grace of restoration – people who decided I was worth the grace and work to restore. I was, it seems, to some, worth the effort. And to some I was not.

I’ve had to make the same decision with others along the way. And the why, the calculus of those decisions, has always fascinated me.

The photograph was taken at an abandoned Air Force base on Cape Cod.

Be well,

Tom