Relational displacement

 Relational displacement

I sailed across the sea.

A fool,

Who clung to hope that

There might be a welcome

At the other end.

The smiling embrace of a friend, perhaps.

I dreamt a homecoming.

Not one which nailed down 

Time and space,

Or one, which 

Blood or earth defined,

But something like a sense 

That, while tomorrow here

Might next be there,

That's where we'd be - 

You and me. 

Constant motion; constant still.

I cast away with this in mind

And lived adrift 

For so long that the dream,

Playing over waves,

Made me sick.

I now no longer know.

Is this a trick?

I look down.

Somehow I came to be standing on the shore.

It doesn't seem so solid any more.

There you are!

Shall we begin?

But in your diary it seems

There's no space, no time

To fit me in.  

Next week maybe, you say, 

As you wave and walk away.

Mary Goodman 28/6/2013