AMAZING GRACE

Amazing Grace
By Arnold J. Mungioli

I wake up a Crazy Wretch,
Tortured by all that I haven’t achieved,
Insane with perceived lack…
My Inner Critics reveling at a tea party on my head,
Full ground-length lace tablecloth and tea china, perfectly set.
Finger sandwiches of So Many Varieties
Cucumber and Self-Deprecation
Comparings and Clotted Cream
Watercress with No Self Esteem and a sprinkling of “How Dare You” Salt
I wake up choking on a mouthful of these Tiny Sandwiches
Grateful that it’s only High Tea,
And not their Holiday Grand Buffet.

I am awash in my own UnWorthiness.
Lost
Blind
Fearful
UnBelieving.
Now,
Here,
The Sun Shines in my window,
As if God is looking in, (more…)

Grace at the Token Booth

Baby AJ

Baby AJ

A Christening on Long Island.
Baby AJ.

Trains to Oakdale run every two hours.
Only the 9:41am Train at Jamaica Station will get me there in time.

After four hours sleep,
Long Waits…
R to the F…
I get off at Briarwood — change for the E to Jamaica.
Almost there…

Postings everywhere read: “No Jamaica-bound E Train service at this station!”
Take the F Train on the other side all the way back to 71st/Continental

I will have missed Baby AJ’s Christening.
I am devastated.

Upstairs in the token booth, I find a small East Indian man, eating a bowl of rice (more…)