Burst
The things that I see and touch consume me;
the work that I must do,
the dinner that I must cook,
and the house that must be tidied
fill up the space in my mind.
And when I close my eyes,
all I can see is the bustle of things,
like a humming city, people and things to see and arrange.
So that it is even hard work to sit there and do nothing, –
to think of stillness,
because things come so quickly to smudge away the quiet.
But there are times too,
when you cut through into my day,
when I am stepping off a kerb on to the road and I think of you.
When a customer smiles at me,
and it makes me feel unique,
and not just part of a machine.
When I look up and see a billboard that says ‘Believe in More’
and it quietly stuns me on my walk in to town.
When I see a leaf, lying on the pavement,
a glorious yellow on dull grey.
And what of all the ordinary things that we do?
The putting on of clothes,
the eating,
the washing of our faces,
the laughing,
the sulking?
Are you in that too?
In my mood swings, my tiredness,
my cold mornings and dark evenings?
And if you were not in the dawn,
the birdsong,
the sunrise,
the work,
the food,
the friends,
the pain,
the rest?
What would we do then?
This is a poem that I wrote a while ago and which was featured in Third Way Magazine (which is sadly no longer in existence). You can see it here.
Copyright Elisabeth Pike. 2010.
elisabeth pike 