I went to my Uncle Dan's funeral yesterday.
I wrote this poem some years ago based on a phrase Uncle Dan use
to say when I was working with him on Murry Street in New York city. When there was a big box to budge, he said “walk
it like a refrigerator” assuming we all knew what that meant. It means, of course, that when you don’t have a hydraulic
lift and a wheeled dolly, you have to jerk a heavy object like that side to
side and almost make the monster walk.
But when I thought about it this was very much like so much in our
lives. Almost nothing moves in your life
hydraulically and slides smoothly on ball bearing wheels. Rather to get through school, stay married,
raise kids, recovery from sickness or addictions, sins, stay connected to God, you
have to jerk yourself through, as if you were a refrigerator trying to walk
through life.
Then too it eventually happens that 'a time has come'. “When it is
senseless to move something later” you just has to go forward. You can’t wait any longer for the ball bearings
or lift; that’s never going to happen. Right now it has to be done, accomplished,
dealt with or moved.
Of course, God has His time for things. He may say to St. Peter, “that person is
ready to come home, Peter.”
St. Peter replies, “That person just isn’t budging, Lord.”
God then says, “Ok, walk it like a refrigerator. It can’t be later.”
And that is how most people I know, who went into the
life after, have in fact, moved: like a refrigerator, not on a smooth dolly.
I had to force myself over to the computer to even do this. It was
like moving a refrigerator. Here is the poem. It's in a form called the Villanelle, much like Dylan Thomas' famous Villanelle, which ironically, is applicable here http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377
Need any Change?
When it is senseless to move something later
And it’s a heave tool or loaded box
Walk it like a refrigerator.
But shift its sides from light to greater
Sliding it at an angle, avoiding knocks,
When it is senseless to move something later.
When you want it done now and can’t use the dumbwaiter
But its size creates a cage with shut deadlocks
Walk it like a refrigerator.
Sometimes the thing you need to moves becomes a traitor.
But slide it you do, creating static electric socks,
When it is senseless to move something later.
If you don’t move it on, it remains your own dictator.
And if it takes your holy self, tempts and then defrocks
Walk it like a refrigerator.
It can stay there in your head like a persistent waiter
When you should pay the bill or remove your dirty socks.
When it’s senseless to move something later
Walk it like a refrigerator.
