Variation in a Remote Key
I’ve not been myself recently
Though I see myself - routinely -
Striding from Engineering down the path
To Social Science - as I see also the heron
Spearing life out of the pretty ponds.
I’ve not been myself recently.
A stranger took my last slice
Of hard-earned leave, slept with my wife,
Enjoyed it, but he does not savour
Autumn the way I used to
Or give time enough to Bach.
He is, typically, in three meetings at once:
The one in which he sits, owlishly,
Feigning wisdom, the previous one
In which he cast my veto, and the next,
Which he’ll chair, recycling skills
I could once rejoice in.
Can I banish him? Theoretically.
Tell him to take his trite remarks,
His clanging incantations off
Past Student Loans, and down
The leafstrewn valley.
His odd, cloying presence
Grows on me, though,
If I cast him off
It might after all turn out
To be winter.
Page(s) 37
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