Celebrate Like You're Running Out of Time, a Birthday Poem for Greg Luna (restored, with Angelo's photographs of the hawk that visited)

Sarah Wood with her painting of the hawk that visited us (see below)

Celebrate Like You’re Running Out of Time

A Birthday Poem for Greg Luna

Dedicated also to Angelo Luna,

Toni Lumbrazo Luna,

& Lin-Manuel Miranda

1.

 separated from his love

Angelo studies stoicism

obsesses over stats

keeping an eye on the latest

from the WHO & the CDC

to tell him where his head is at

perhaps his studies will lead him

to develop the NYC grit

his mother denied him

when she tore us from our home state

so that she could spend her days hiding

all I know is I admire him

I must respect his wishes

regarding our time outside the house

he’s keeping us all safe

and in return I enjoy

the gift of time with him

 

it’s all we have in the end

 

2.

 lockdown inevitably changes one’s perspective:

I now realize that I suffer from

          self-created

          ego-driven

          paranoia

                             all of which are illusion

                             and a colossal waste of my

                             limited time on this earth

 

or that I spend too many moments

worrying about bullshit

 

being isolated

from family & friends

 

(since late 2001)

 

has forced me to reconsider

my concept of both freedom & independence

meanwhile

the world burns

and an evil thug

has his rich knee

on the neck of

our democracy 

3. 

on this day when independence from monarchy

is reduced to a mindless, heartless, nutrition-free

cartoon of patriotism

 

I marvel at you

my brother

an anomaly

in our contentious family:

a truly peaceful person

and the only one able to

broker peace

when shit goes down

 

wish I had an ounce of your ease

to soothe my troubled mind

it is as if the spirit of our grandfather

his tranquility          the quiet power

          of his equanimity

had leapt into you

so that you might embody

the harmony

this energy affords

 

                             I love you for it 

4. 

yesterday as we watched Hamilton

crying & laughing & experiencing

a resurgence in our love for the republic

 

a hawk appeared suddenly on our back fence

& everything froze—you should have seen it

 

yellow & red & ferocious        majestic

 

& completely indifferent to our petty worries

 

we caught a brief glimpse of true freedom & realized

 

how lucky we are to be alive right now

Photos by Angelo Luna