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.
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.
