Safe, Unsound

My husband just went through a knee replacement surgery, a decision made after suffering years with injury-induced arthritis.
I once asked him if he would have gone out for baseball as a teenager if he’d known he’d wind up with several surgeries and a lot of discomfort. He said, “Of course.” It was about a high school student wanting to have fun.

Speaking of fun, I was getting a little bored in the hospital room while my husband slept through most of the day post-surgery. So I created a new “friend.” I know it’s not as amazing as the imaginary friend, “Wilson,” in the movie Castaway, but it’ll suffice. But the real fun came from composing the following poem while my husband was in surgery for two and a half hours.

SAFE, UNSOUND
By Kareen King

What if, while chasing youthful dream
Of playing on the baseball team
You knew you’d land some injuries
That cost you many surgeries

What if we knew the end result
Before we chose to catapult
Into a world of risk and chance
Would we pursue this dang’rous dance

What if our fears would keep us bound
To ev’rything that’s safe and sound
Believing opportunity
As lesson in futility

What if nothing should interfere
With peace of mind and thoughts, secure
No ebb and flow of sanity
To meddle with serenity

Imagine just to cruise along
While humming forth a lazy song
And drifting with our peace in tow
Not altering the status quo

And as we reach the end of years
Avoiding all our worst of fears
We’d find the worst was yet to come
While grieving what fear kept us from

So let us choose while choosing’s good
And weigh out ev’ry “don’t” and “should”
With ev’ry “go-out-on-a-limb”
While taking chances on a whim

Sometimes we must kick off those shoes
And play, whether we win or lose
But never should we shed a tear
For living from regret and fear