Prevailing Winds

© Copyright Iain MacDonald, 2008

Envelop eating snail
Underwater breathing fish
Wettest garden scale
How long the winds prevail
Pine tree stance, high top mountain
Strong against the howling gale.

Philosophers and poets, artists entrenched
town planners, all receive emails, niggling thoughts
‘To do’ lists, sliding scales
Tomorrow Rego papers, BAS statements
Birthday cards to grannies, snail mail!
Fix the mower, padlock for the gate
Call the doctor, dentist, the fee is late
Who will see me, do I really care?
Shave and balance, make a bet
Walk the dog, fix up the vet
Car insurance, house insurance
Goods and contents, weed the garden
Uniforms for the kids, credit for their mobiles…
Replace the batteries in my head
I think I might implode!

So much doing. Too much throwing
Where are the swimmers?
Swallow this it will make you thinner
More attractive, if you fix it!
Fix this, fix that, sit down and relax
For a minute
Get out your woolens and your thermals
Winter’s coming back.

I’m exhausted before I wake, it’s all so terrifying
A leaf becomes mud, melting plastic mould
Melted beauty, wabi sabi world.
Is this progress?

Someone say the word
Pinch of salt in the eye of evolving nothingness
The witness in your bones, the fear in self
Everything gives hope
Truth is too busy to empathize
Too anxious to read ‘The users guide’
Too old while young, shocked, I find myself
On the scrap heap of our days
Desperate, crying, spent youth no denying
Trying and vying, climbing ladders
Sucked in loser ! This is the game !
Trying not to begin snakes and ladders
We contest; I never meant to begin.

Become a monk
Adopt a child, Third world
Patent my ideas
Watch friends with envy, as I sail away.
Life’s not so bad after all
The last package deal, learn to scuba dive
Watch the Maldives hold their breath.

Where were you when
Kennedy, Lennon and Diana
Died?

Where will you be
When this Beautiful world
Dies.