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Photo by Edward McKuen 9/24/2005
A Thought for Today
Stepping on the stage
is like stepping on the starter: Sometimes you have to pump a little before the engine
turns.
FROM the¨BOOKS
TRANSITION
Can you guess what’s wrong?
I’ve tried and failed
to rise above the breakers
to swift sail out the storm.
Now chance is going
if not gone.
Will you be the one
to start the argument tonight
or is it my turn, I forget.
I wait here for a sign,
a motion wasted on me,
proof that it is possible
for each of us to care
for each of us.
I cannot say
how long I’ve waited.
Years pass by within
a single hour
to those who feel uncared for.
Had there been a signal,
I would have known.
What goes on unseen
untold to us
by one the other
is more real
than all the sentences
our senses spoke
and speak.
I see your face and know
a tilting of your shoulder
speaks whole paragraphs aloud
whole stories filled with proof
that what is happening
is if anything a willful lie
both of us indulge in.
This much is fact.
You do not amaze me
with your dark indifference.
You never once astound me
by being only what
you wish to be.
I await the crumbs just now
delighted that they come
from fresh bread
lifted out of ovens
by some hidden master baker.
No pride moves ahead
to pave my way.
I’ve fast become
the dark parts
of your shadow,
little more than your extension,
hardly more than your left arm.
It tires me to know
I’m just the casing
of a window
looking out beyond your world. After
I’ve packed up
and gone
fly a flag
should the intruder come.
Take care to give me
fresh reports of all the ships
and all the ducks and seagulls
that sail or waddle beachward.
Be sure to tell me
if the seals come back
this year
and how the house
gets through the winter.
Keep a diary of sorts
a notebook day to day
that I might thumb through
or
pore over
when I’m living inland
miles away.
- From the US Edition of "The Sea Around Me", 1977
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