Tuesday, September 1, 2020

BARBARA EHRENTREU


BARBARA EHRENTREU


C Vs C
(Corona vs. Cancer)

Dedicated to Madeline Marx who asked for it

Into this world where cancer still has not found a cure
Came another greater scourge to eliminate mankind
And debilitate society
Not caring for age or amount of money as cancer does not care
Slipping into the body invisibly undetected until almost too late

There is no cure for either though cancer has been around longer
And has taken too many lives to count from this earth
Including my own mother and friends and a dear cousin
All of whom fought it until it was too late and it overtook them

So corona overtakes and cares not for how long you suffer
Or how you struggle to breathe
It is an insidious virus that invades your body and destroys until you
are no longer able to function
As does cancer if it can’t be contained.

Lucky for the world there are ways to stop this deadly cancer and in
recent years many times remissions have occurred, including my
own sweet niece who has beaten it off for now
And people are searching for a once and for all cure for cancer
To eradicate it and make it a defunct disease

But corona virus or Covid-19 has its ups and downs
For some it is just a few small symptoms and a few days of rest
But for others it is a life sentence as they must use machines to breathe
And then only some come off of them and recover
There is no cure and survivors breathe a sigh of relief to be back in the world

Too many have succumbed to cancer and now too many to corona virus
Perhaps if we close our eyes and knock our sparkling red shoes together saying
“There’s no place like home” we might one day find a way to eliminate this
But until a scientist stumbles upon a cure or a vaccine is safe enough to give us all
we will continue to wear masks and wash our hands in hopes of keeping away
this deadly disease-- and keep ourselves safe against a virus that is invisible and deadly
We cannot cure cancer or find a vaccine yet but my hope is that soon this too will become a defunct disease and we will be able to live our lives on earth without the
threat of disease invading them and taking away our loved ones.

Too many have been lost due to both diseases, and it is my hope that soon
our airwaves will not be filled each day with the stories of more and more people
who are getting this disease or the worst part, the daily death toll
as if we are once again watching the numbers of killed in a war
We are fighting a war and it is time to suit up
or stay at home behind the lines where it is safe.
Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu









Climbing Back Up When You Are Down
“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible.”
Audrey Hepburn

When your world has torn into pieces
too small to think you will ever put them together
and you find yourself searching for a way
to bring these pieces back to their shape
In the weary moments of struggling in your mind
there is an answer for the determined sufferer

For me it seemed my puzzle would never come together
because it was missing a big important piece
one that defined it and without it I thought it couldn’t exist
For how can one exist when a vital part is missing?
Continually searching for a way to complete what
felt an impossible task – to put my life back together
I tried each day to live moment to moment
Believing if I could get through this one brief minute
I could go through the next

But my favorite movie star expressed what I needed most
To hear – it could be done -- for nothing is impossible
I was still there and though my puzzle couldn’t be finished
the way I wished – I could leave it and move onto another
for in order to feel more together I needed to have flexibility
If something didn’t work I needed to move on
I didn’t have to depend on only one way
but I did need to know that continuing on I would achieve my goal.

Many puzzles might come my way
but I didn’t need to solve or complete them all
In doing them, eventually I would come to see
what I had thought was impossible come to fruition
A life devoid of color and light would somehow blossom again
Like a garden where the flowers had been cut for bouquets
will once more have blooms growing in a few weeks

I was the bush with my most precious flowers gone but
the gardener had left the stems and my roots were firmly
planted in the soil of my home
What seemed impossible has appeared again -- and now
these blossoms grow once more
as I realize the beauty and the fragrance of their presence.
Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu
Originally from The Garden of Poetry and Prose on Facebook








Finding The Secret To A Tranquil Life
And The Key To Your Treasure

Some people feel life is a performance
where you must always dress up and play a part
They saunter through as if on a stage
pretending to be something they aren’t
Thinking this is the way to a tranquil existence
when everything is dedicated to their happiness
no matter the consequence or the feelings of others around them

They do not deal honestly with most people
For that is against what they are trying to do
Honesty plays very little part in their lives
as they use and abuse the people with whom they are dealing
And these actors in their own lives never find a tranquil moment
for they are constantly on and perpetually spinning the next lie.

As a child I used to want to be one of the chosen ones
And then I learned that I was way too honest to be one of them
My honesty was jammed into me as a child when as a young girl
I grabbed a tiny, no bigger than my fingernail at the time, plastic baby doll
from Woolworth’s and put it in my pocket – then showed it proudly to my parents
But they were mortified and ordered me, a barely seven-year-old, to go
back, confess and give back this treasure I had acquired

Never again would I be placed in that position for not telling the truth
Or for going against the rules of needing to pay for what I chose – well
practically never until as an adult for lack of money --
So I remained a straightforward, mostly honest, fair-dealing person
And found that fame and fortune were never to be mine
since most of what I needed to do, as I learned much older, was to lie,
obfuscate and misrepresent to get the prize
I said no to lying and not fair dealing and chose honesty
Selling insurance was never going to make me tranquil.
And I found my treasure when I learned my words
placed on a page made me happy and I could do it honestly
For the more honest I was the more impact they had on the
people who read them.

Honesty is what I deal in now
And frankly, it has made me tranquil and happy and
Finding others who appreciate that has been my treasure.
Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu







Just A Place To Kneel

Apprehended and handcuffed
he placed his knee on the
man’s neck as if needing a rest
He chose this neck of his perp
and pressed down until
it cut off this man’s breath
Nonchalantly he looked around
as if placing and pressing a knee into a neck
was just a place to kneel

And the victim screamed “Stop I can’t breathe”
but the words meant nothing
for this uncaring officer saw only
another — one not like him
and he believed this other darker skinned human
to be a place where he, the officer, had free will
to push his knee into this throat

No one interfered or rushed to the victim’s aid
fearful of the guns worn by the officers
and not wanting that officer to be pushing on their necks

A sad tableau seen and videoed -- of inhumanity
played out on a city street while injustice screamed
and was muted by the pressure of a knee
as a sanctioned action became deadly by the force
of this life-destroying knee.
Copyright 2020 by Barbara Ehrentreu


BARBARA EHRENTREU


Barbara Ehrentreu grew up in the United States in Brooklyn and Queens. She currently lives in Stamford, CT. She has a Masters Degree in Reading and Writing K-12. If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor and After are her two YA novels. Barbara has a poetry book, You’ll Probably Forget Me: Living With and Without Hal.  Her poems are published in anthologies, including Poets To Come: The Walt Whitman Bicentennial Anthology, Crossroads: A Poet's Journey edited by Luzviminda G. Rivera and World Poetry Open Mic Anthology for 2019, 2018, 2017. Her short screenplay, “The Kiss” has won awards at both Indie Gathering, where it won 1st prize for a short Romantic comedy and Action on Film, where it won Honorable Mention for Dialogue in a short screenplay. She has a blog, Barbara's Meanderings, is Regional Director for the West for Motivational Strips and hosts a radio show, Books and Entertainment Tales from the Pages, monthly. She is a member of Greenwich Pen Women Letters and SCBWI


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