Life when seen through the lens of a western movie ….

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Stages of Gratitude
by Michael Romani

Down the old dusty, winding road
A creaky stagecoach takes it's journey
Each passenger an expert and a scold
Pressed for wisdom they instead give injury

Each insisting their own mock superiority
A quick and deadly mask for inferiority
Defiant in customs and in insistent attitudes
They have forgotten their passage requires gratitude

And as the wheels go on spinning around
The driver of this stagecoach pressing for ground
Savage in countenance the riders shove for their place
Unyielding of a single inch unwilling to show grace

It's a shorter ride than thought in imagination
With the journey ending at the final station
If only the riders had passed time for pleasantly
Thinking on what might be shared rather than arrogantly

The broken watches in life are right twice a day
Those who insist on certainty are right in just that same way
Singing carols on silent nights about snow bells glistening
Too busy talking over to ever really be listening

Pride is the folly that most everyone knows
Falling down like bridges into life's river flows
A little bit of honest and earnest gratitude
Warms the bitter cold and is not simply platitude

Still as we watch such goings on such as we're able
Twice a year, every year, we gather around the family table
Offering up hard thought out choices on what to have gratitude
While the broken man whispers his prayer in reverent attitude

All the gifts that life bring us seem to waltz on by
All the questions of mercy choking on passersby's replies
If but for a moment each might think what Jesus would do
Might we pass through together holding loyal to what is true?

(c) November 23, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved