Creatures of Routine

Ever noticed that’s you?

O that’s me too,

We’re both creatures of routine

Both me and you.

And as we get older

It becomes more so

It’s routine that helps us

Both you and I know.

I’ll leave you for a while

And talk about myself,

It’ll delay Alzheimer’s

And improve my health.

A regular term today

I am sure you’d agree

Especially among those

Who are older than me.

But back to the routine issue

Before I forget

And you begin to talk,

I am not there yet.

 

 

 

Creature of habit is another term

It means the same as routine,

The order we apply every day

To maintain a familiar scene.

I get up on mornings

And open the windows,

I unlock the gates

That’s the general flow.

Then I go to a place

You go there too,

Don’t turn up your nose

You know I mean you.

I compose a poem

Usually related to the Word,

On very rare occasions

It’s one that’s absurd.

I may or may not

Take breakfast, I mean

Then I try to catch up

On what has been.

The Nation and Barbados Today

Followed by devotions online,

Then it’s to my e-mail

To see what I will find.

Most days of the week

I have to leave home

Yes, and you guess it

I am seldom alone.

My wife travels with me

And that helps a lot,

She comes in handy

Regarding the things I forgot.

More often than not

There are several stops to make

So there’s a particular sequence

That I try to take.

Who wants to go back home

Having forgotten something

Or to have to head back out

When the telephone rings?

That’s enough about me

Now let’s get to you,

I know you have it down packed

But that’s just your view.

The same cup and plate

And the same drinking glass,

Heat the water in the kettle

Then put in the flask.

A regular cup of tea

All through the day

And all three meals at a set time,

That’s some people’s way.

  

The same seat in church

Every time you attend

And the same routine on Sundays

Your church knows the trend.

Same parking spot

Once nobody parks there

And that is rather seldom

Since you take especial care.

You arrive there early

To get both park and seat

And during that time

You can both meet and greet.

Let us return again

To what happens at home,

Regarding the following routines

None of us is alone.

Spectacles in the same spot

When not on the face,

We need them to search for them

When they are not in that place.

The cellphone can be a problem

Though not for the young,

It’s always in their hands

There it can always be found.

With the older ones

It’s quite a different scene,

They want to know

Who moved it from where it’s been.

Routine and habit

 Custom and procedure,

Success when we stick to it

And when we don’t there’s failure.

It’s a stress reliever

We try to convince everyone

And we try to sustain it

From dawn till dawn.

  

Everyone has a bit

Though some more than others

And the older one gets

The more it becomes a bother.

The older we get

It is all that we remember,

And when people try to change us

We don’t easily surrender.

The ignorant among us

Begin to call us names

Like obstinate and presumptuous

And even sometimes insane.

But their time will come

If they get old enough

Though they may be so into Alzheimer’s

They won’t know how tough.

Only this afternoon

We could not find the phone,

It is kept on the stand

And it stands there alone.

It was so ridiculous

See us looking everywhere

Even the strangest of places

Such was our fear.

Perhaps I flushed it

The wife had suggested

But I didn’t pay her any mind

I just wasn’t interested.

We looked and we looked

But the phone could not be found,

I began to feel responsible

And next I felt like a clown.

With a hundred guesses

You still would not know

But would you believe

The phone was left on the patio?

I rested it out there

In order to shift some plants

Knowing I would never forget it

No not a chance.

But alas it happened

And I felt particularly silly

For even though a creature of routine

It still happened to me.

Stewart Russell © June 2018