Lynn White

How To Float

They told me a stone would never float.

I didn’t believe them

so I threw it carefully on to the water.

It stayed there

on the surface,

a miracle!

So I threw another carefully to land on top

and then another

and another.

Now a stack of stones was floating 

on the water.

They told me a stone would never hang in the air.

I didn’t believe them

so I threw it carefully upwards.

It stayed there

in the air,

a miracle! 

So I threw another to land underneath

and then another

and another.

Now a stack of stones was hanging

in the air

casting its shadow on the water.

Believe in the miracles you can make.

Don’t believe what they tell you.

Cast a long shadow.

Beyond Our Control

Beneath the surface of the night

the daylight is hiding.

I saw it disappear

as the sun sank 

beneath 

the straight line of the horizon.

It’s still there somewhere,

hiding here 

but showing itself

shining roundly 

somewhere else

in a different place,

a different hemisphere.

That’s how it works

this day and night business

that’s in control,

that tells the flowers 

when to close up their petals

and the animals to sleep

and dream.

Every day

it happens,

a shining

sinking

miracle

hiding

beyond our control.

Alchemy

Still they try to find it,

the secret of eternal youth,

the women with their heavy made-up masks,

the men with their toupees,

the nip and tuckers, 

the stretchers and smoothers.

Like the alchemists of old searching

for the secret of turning base metal to gold,

they’re searching,

searching,

searching,

endlessly searching

magic and science

as they get older

and older

still.

And still 

the fountain of youth eludes them.

And all the alchemists are dead.

First published in Free Verse Revolution, Issue I: Hebe (the fountain of youth)