Valentine's Day Meets Ash Wednesday #valentinesday #ashwednesday #dinosaurs

Apologies for the Ash Wed's drama-face portrait. Pure laziness and slowness on my part--didn't have time to make a pertinent illustration. Time is a specter that picks up its pace twice as fast as mine slows. Which kinda brings me to my point

February 14, 2024

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday

stare each other dead in the eyes.

I don’t have time for their drama.

The car needs an oil change.

Afterward, I am two blocks downhill from the service station

when the engine light comes on.

I don’t have time for this drama.

The uphill drive back shivers in a cold February sweat.

A hose is found knocked loose.

The engine was having trouble breathing.

I barely have time for this diagnosis and remedy

and still make it to church on time.

Scriptures are read and foreheads are crossways ashed.

Parishioners pause to reflect

upon how we do not know how much time we have left

before the fruition of the inevitable “to ash”, returning.

The drive home obsesses about decaying dinosaurs.

I round a corner to face the bare foothills and imagine the great beasts’ alarm

at the uncharacteristic lack of snow cover for this time of year.

I wonder if they’d have also been distressed over the ashfall of last summer’s fires.

Our hope and our future

are staring each of us dead in the eyes,

as a gasping planet struggles to breathe, having no time left for our drama.

The wobbling world seeks love among all these ashes.

Sandra K.King copyright2024