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
