Lessons for air-traffic controllers (and others); PLUS, Why Birthdays are a Gift

Flying Solo is for the Birds
Lessons for air-traffic controllers (and others)

Air-traffic controllers
(who can't stay awake)
sleep in ivory towers
feeding nightmares raw steak.

Those take-offs and landings
in time take their toll
on sleep-deprived sentries
who lose all control

of eyelids (quite heavy)
that long to stay closed
and threaten a future
of jobs they once chose.

These guys need a partner
to help them keep watch
so when they are weary
and tempted botch

their crucial assignments
of shepherding jets,
they'll do what is needed
and have no regrets.

But then...

We all need companions.
God said so. It's true!
We fail going solo
whatever we do!

Why Birthdays are a Gift
A poet reflects on the 59th anniversary of his birth

Birthdays are a chance to pause
and count our blessings (and our flaws).
To thank the Lord He gave us life
and loves us as we are.

The day we contemplate our birth
and tabulate our inner worth,
we eat a piece of birthday cake
(and also humble pie).

We know we don't deserve God's grace
for things we'd just as soon erase
that punctuate the years we've lived
preoccupied with self.

But in that candled cake we find
a sweet reminder that love's blind.
Those gifts from friends and family
convey the way God feels.

One day a year we find the means
to reaffirm those life-long dreams
He planted in our pre-born hearts
before we took a breath.

Ah, yes. Our birthday is a milestone
to mark the ways in which we've grown
by making peace with what is past
and thanking God for grace.