Friday, November 18, 2011

No Thoroughfare

My inner maze has blocked both ways;

I am cabin-fevered with sameness.

Myth would have it the goddess

is sitting cross-legged at my threshold.

If I am to dislodge her,

I need to loosen, undo, untie

fling open winter-shut doors and windows,

let in fresh air and sunlight.


But my courage and the goddess

have developed an inverse

symbiosis. I can have one

or the other, but not both at once.


Friday, November 11, 2011

The Whims of Chance

Life is made up of conditional clauses:

if . . . , then . . . ,

especially the subjunctive,

if I had . . . , or worse,

if only I had . . . .

I've been examining

the road map of my life,

seeing how little input I've had.

A slight, unplanned change of direction

and everything is different:

places, friends, activities.

Its like being a character

in a novel by someone else.

There will be an ending,

but I have no way of knowing

what form the ending will take.

I am insignificant,

blown by the whims of chance.



Yet, on one occasion

I was farewelling Paul

and he shared his gratitude:

Out of all the possibilities

of space and time, we're here,

together, on this Melbourne station.”

The world expanded under my feet.