Mind the Gap

I miss you like a boat craves the water

perched aloft in dry dock winter.

I miss you like the sails ache for the wind,

the storms still to come, the journeys to make.

My adventures incomplete, I tack uselessly against the current,

caught in the pull of your wake.

I miss you like a fish misses swimming,

each muscle a memory.

I miss myself

my self

with you.

Circus in Three Rings

I don’t care where in the world I am

If my lair is cosy,

Well-stocked and well-connected.

I can hibernate year-round

Among familiar smells

Velvety warmth of comfort habits

Foods tried and tested –

Make mine a ham and cheese sandwich-

Yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever –

If the world comes to me through my screen

Why need I go seek it out?

I seek the wind to sail me,

Adventure to toss me.

Even in the face of fear and discomfort

I need to earn warmth and plenty,

When muscles are weary

And brain is saturated.

I need to try newness,

Quench those thirst-filled questions

Too numerous to waste time.

No lifetime is enough –

I’ve got world to conquer.

So one wanders off

Outside the magic circle,

The other firmly within

But absent of mind.

Not much anger but not much laughter either.

We know not which to follow,

As they tear off in opposite directions.