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)
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