street roots
15
Nov. 21, 2014
Make A Wish
Reflection
by Ron Sanford
by Steven R Miller
As I’ve gotten older, I look in the mirror less.
Call it spiritual growth.
Call it a knee-jerk reaction.
I can’t see myself as I used to.
When I was young, I picked up this sliver of sophomoric truth and ran with it,
Not knowing how others see me,
Obsessed with an exterior I had to live up to.
I indulged myself in narcissistic sublimation,
Was it confidence, arrogance dr a defense mechanism?
Now, I am a battled-scarred 47-year-old,
Attempting to label what I see when I look in the mirror.
I can’t say I haven’t been blessed, just to be here...
Although life has passed me unceremoniously.
A plain Jane is fine with me!
No jewelry or hair dye.
We are co-servants,
One is our leader,
We are followers.
A perfect person I will never find in a mate.
So I feel great to be able to understand simple truths,
To pass the time not surrounded by myself,
But to accept those things which I cannot change.
The past is gone and can’t be changed.
I have no need to look in the mirror anymore,
I’m off to the next challenge.
Sometimes what you feel is more reliable than what you see...
Close your eyes and make a wish to be happy with who you are...
rozzos
Crossword
Across
1. “A pox on you!"
4. Engine part
7. Like farmland
13. Wanting company
15. Less than stellar Joes
16. Something an intern
can never be
17. Gets ready to swing
18. Doctors for old-timers
20. Glut
21. Put into words
22. Old
25. Catch some rays
28. Medicinal amt.
30. Scissors cut
3 1 .1 still call it centrifugal
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
45.
47.
48.
49.
51.
53.
57.
A Beatle bride
Blvd.
Kind of testing
“Rocks”
Bug
Medic
Not needed
Squeaks (out)
Canine cry
Farm pen
Nope, Chuck____
.001 inch
Attack, with “into"
I’ll Be There For You,
among Friends
61. Civic Scotsman
63. Something comparable
across the pond
64. Best suited
65. Dragonboat heroes
66. Assignations
67. Store posting: Abbr.
68. Bard’s “before”
I stand in the doorway of an abandoned brownstone,
Staring long into a dirty window pane,
Questions of sanity,
Smear my vanity.
My reflection tells me nothing concrete,
Just repeats what others see.
Pants a Uttie worn at the knees
Five o’clock shadow at 6 a.m.
Grime embedded under the nails.
Clearly last night was hell,
As well as the day before.
Threadbare shirt,
What others think hurts,
Only a little.
Unreflected,
Certainly unexpected,
Is a heart of gold
A soul that truly cares,
But is scared.
Years of use, abuse, being obtuse,
Still can’t really hide all I’ve hidden inside.
If you look deep into the windows of my soul.-
You can see
All I want to be
Hope to do
I’m really not that different from you.
Answers on page 6
By Grace B adik
■ ■r !
2
n
5 «
8
6
14
13
9
10
11
12
5
4
16
&
21
20
125
32
33
26
2 7 Ì
41
34
1 H L ■ H
4 6 |
5 0 |
49
57
62
64
66
Down
1. An anatomical depression
2. Sluggish
3. Supremely spooky
4. Jacket
5. Arabic boys name, in the
plural
6. Umpire
7. Italian wine town
8. Flightless birds
9. Catkins
10. Brazillian Music
11. Romanian cash
12. Uncommon sense
59
58
36
1
44
n
51
53
54
55
56
60
63
J 1 □
65
J
t3. Records
14. Health resort
19. Of a pouch'of tissue ,
23. Purse item •-
24. Bond X
26. Pakistani language
27. Fool
29. Treasure map distances
31. West Pointer
32. Call up
33. Gotta have It
34. Canal site
35. For fear that
43. Rest In Peace
9 6 1
5
40
39
■
24
30
3 5|
L
45
23
22
291■
28
38
L
37
61
2
19|
18
31
Sudoku
■
|68”
■
44. Part of a heartbeat
46. Dylan O’Brien in “Teen
W olf
50. To ranch for hire
52. Like some cycles
54. What is this, a drill for
wood?
55. Get used (to)
56. Noted Virginia family
58. New Jersey five
59. X-ray units
60. Antiquity, once
61. Hitmaker?
62. Spring mo.
1 3
2 9
6
8 9
1
3
4
8
6 7
3
4 8
9
7
5
The objective of Sudoku is to fill in all the blank squares with the
correct numbers from 1 to 9. Every row, column and square must
include all digits, 1 through 9, in any order.