Away Day
“This is Rescue 177 -
continuing to search the coastline
with no sighting of the casualty.”
Methodically, they probe the night
illuminating cliffs and beaches
with a million candle-power.
Like us, they found no trace of him -
missing for years in his own backyard,
but this time it was very different.
wearing a smiling puzzlement -
blind to the anger and the distress.
“Just popped out for a little while –
don’t know what all the fuss is for.”
Unable to say where he’d been, or why –
the only clues about his wanderings
came from the crumpled bus-tickets.
Next day,
he reads the newspaper story -
quite concerned for the poor old man…
He didn’t make connections
any more.
[In memory of George ‘
Wild Flower
In the early morning sun
so still upon the roadside grass
she sits, in Lotus.
Eyes closed,
features smoothed and half in smile
within feet of thundering traffic
she is completely present -
and yet, so very far from here.
In the quietness of the mountains
almost anyone can reach
a state of contemplative bliss,
but it takes a special kind of trust
to look for it like this.
