2013 Sands of Time in Review

It is that time of year, the time in which we look back at the events of the year and make our resolutions and predictions for the coming year. I have done that in poetic form many times, but this year in every attempt the chaos of the ACA drowned out the subtle notes of other events just waiting to dance on the page in iambic beat. This review is something new, but not borrowed and certainly not Blue. The review is still a poem but includes some very ordinary and non famous people rising up to face adversity. Hopefully, you enjoy it and with apologies to all who are probably fed up with this poet's rabid exhortations a last for 2013 GO CARDINAL IN THE ROSE BOWL!!!
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL, AND ESPECIALLY A THANKS AND APPRECIATION TO ALL WHO HAVE ENJOYED MY BLOGS AND TWEETS IN 2013 AND HOPEFULLY ARE LOOKING TO MORE IN 2014
 

2013 The Year In Review

Once more, Father Time begins to shuffle across the yearly stage

The events of the past year recorded in many a page

The Babe New Year waits nervously in the wings,

Wondering after hearing of the book, what the new 2014 will bring

Far too many events to spotlight in the 2013 parade

Some serious, some comical, some revulsion and disdain, some worthy of charades

While many had only 15 minutes of fame or shame, many images once noted do not seem to fade

Every time you read or listened or watched the news

You could not escape; Obama Care was the consuming witches brew

“Period” in 2013 became no longer a needed grammar tool

But a symbol of repeated, broken promises as a President sought to fool

A government shut down with images of Veterans from monuments turned away

“Arsonists”, “hostage takers”, “Klansmen” et al—any rhetoric, the art of compromise to slay
A national debt continuing to climb at billions daily to new heights

Our children’s future pie consumed in every increasing spending bites

The Reds and Blues unable to even in a photo op to reach across the aisle

A distance to be loathed more than a condemned walking the green mile

A dysfunctional government made for politics in 2013 a state pretty grim

The only purple was the imperial kind our President wanted as his trim

A website that for weeks did not work yet sucked in millions of dollars to build and try to fix

God help those cancelled who think they are covered and next year go to the hospital sick

NSA eavesdropping, as it should, on foreign foes but also on friends and, to great surprise, us

While IRS in targeting the drinkers of tea threw Tax Code independence under the bus

Hilary is seen anxiously waiting in the wings for a race in 2016

The Gray Lady in her support white washes the Benghazi Al Qaeda scene

The heart of Mandela, a truly great man of forgiveness, at 95 finally stops

Yet at the funeral a phony signer for Obama and then a flirting “selfie” photo op

One could go on and on, but here is a better idea that may give us some hope

That from Boston Strong to an hours old groom we Americans can prevail and not just cope

In Boston during the Boston Marathon, bombs exploded to maim and slay

We know the city rallied and in other marathons we held our fear at bay

A victory parade for the Sox ending at the finish line to celebrate a Series win

Boston Strong, a message— we will put the terrorists into the trash heap bins

Joy Johnson at 86 at running later in the marathon on New York City streets

Falling down, helped up, hobbling slowly to a finish, never to admit a quitting defeat

Like the first marathoner of ancient Greece, “Joy to you! You have won.”

Next day in a hospital bed, her running  life complete, her life was done.

A fallen warrior, John Hargis, minus two legs in a coma lying in a hospital bed

When the Purple Heart pinned on his chest, a salute, as somehow the coma darkness shed

An eighth grade teacher of math, Michael Landsberry, a former Marine

Unarmed, a human shield, died protecting students by being in between.

We know from the Bible that Peter was a fisherman as was Francisco Camacho, a father of six

On a December day when the ocean was playing on a breakwater its deadly tricks

Another total stranger father and  14 year swept off the breakwater and trying to survive

No hesitation, no debate, he dove in to help—they made it, he is no longer alive.

A brief hours old  marriage ended far too soon and not by a groom pushed off a cliff

A true Knight, stopping at night to free a stranger trapped in a car in a snowy drift

An ex-Ranger, Riley Knight, then  struck by car while his new bride listened on

A hero who did not make it to the bridal suite and will never see another dawn.

I could go on, there are hundreds more events but the tears fog my eyes.

We are all lessened when a mere mortal, a Samaritan, a hero is wounded or dies.

Focus on the 2013 famous, the celebs, the news magnets and you focus only on immobile rocks,

When the ordinary grains of sand through the hour glass of time were in 2013 and now in 2014 will be the driver of humanity’s clock.

The book for 2014 awaits and has only pages blank, humanity’s and your story to write

May the script be one of purpose, may the palters and wrongs be outweighed by the truths and rights.

© December 31, 2013 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet