We wait to be born, we wait to die

and in-between we wait and wait.

We wait for our appointments,

our interviews, our coffee breaks,

quitting time and paychecks too.

We wait for the paper, the mail,

the telephone, the car to be fixed

and other service calls. We wait

for departures or arrivals, wait

for our guests to arrive or event

to begin, we wait for kindergarten

and we wait to graduate, we wait

to get our license and find a mate

hunters and fishermen often also

wait and wait and wait.
 
 

There are many, many other kinds

of wait; passports, visas, emigration,

immigration, the sun to rise, the moon

to shine, the seasons to change, lift-off,

touch-down, an elusive UFO, the spouse's mood

to change, one never knows but

we wait and wait, hoping to make it so.
 
 

And in our modern society where with

jet planes or rockets we go, carrying

our programmed laptop computers

for an instantaneous "yes" or "no",

why the tremendous pressure,

frustration, anxiety, fatigue only

to meet our self-made goals,

objectives and deadlines,

after all, did not we make it so.
 
 

Are human beings, spending a

great deal of their lives just

waiting and waiting, really

able to adjust to the current

mentality of, go, go, go.

In retrospect, perhaps for the

short haul, but over the long

term, no. Burn-out and personal

disintegration awaits those

who truly attempt to do so.

Hurry up and wait, all

servicemen know, just as,

waiting for the Robert E.

Lee, was it, not too long ago.
 
 
 

HERBERT HOLZBAUER

© April 1997