Monday, 9 March 2020

Left Behind


You said, ‘I will become the rain,’
and I did not know what this meant.
What is it that walks around the world
without any shoes?
The instinct we have is always to believe
that we alone are right
about everything.
‘We are riding the waves on the sea of time,’
I eventually replied, facetiously.
‘No,’ you replied, with a face as earnest
as a sheet of glass.
‘We are the waves
and the sea is not of time,
but of the universe.’
We waited in vain while happy childhood memories
photocopied themselves out of existence,
until all we had left
was all that had left us.
Our songs no longer played in the key of happiness.
Life must have difficulty,
and the only thing you have control over is yourself,
and you don’t even have that, not fully.
Celebrate your existence on days
other than your birthday.
You know what I don’t like about novels?
The feeling of disappointment at the end.
When you told me, for the umpteen millionth time,
‘You should write your life story,’
I couldn’t put it any simpler than,
‘But I don’t like melodramas,
and: the past is of little interest
when compared to the writing of a new poem.’
If you are adopted,
reality is a sheet which covers the truth.
My journey through life was punctuated
with land mines and lemon groves.
All they did was graffiti exclamation marks
on the walls of reality.
You do not conquer mountains.
Do you understand yet? No?
Well read the bloody poem again.

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