Category: Rituals

Laughter and applause greet the words
neither is deserved
A mixture of platitudes and dilute humour
it’s what the occasion demands.

There are no expectations
except the expected
predictable and sanitised
brief and meaningless.

Deception as protocol
principle faces down temptation.
Defects are scribed with invisible ink
virtues shone with floodlight.

Difficulties never existed
only solutions that might have been
goodwill abounds.
The perfect employee
sad to see you gone
the place will never be the same.

The neighbour on the other side advised waiting five years,
if the new arrivals are still in residence
say hello
good advice, and backed by experience
she had lived in the same house for 49 years
but not valid in this case.

The did become neighbour introduced herself first,
coming around pre-purchase ostensibly to check fences,
but really us.

Perhaps embarrassed about her effrontery or
subterfuge
she said she was on her own.
“On my own” – she didn’t actually specify
or say, separated, divorced, estranged
but said she had  had a son
so we figured he must’ve been some sort of relationship, at some time.

One day when weeding the garden
directly beneath the fence
I heard the materialism of a teenager
wanting and wishing out loud –
then
“ask your father.”

Antarctica, the old salts said was harder to get out of
than into
in the 1970’s and 80’s, fable was fact.
Many,
had always wanted to
yearned, ever since very young
thought it too good an opportunity to pass up.

The reality
was a three star prison
shared accommodation
institutional food
no privacy
very little opportunity for individuality 
restricted movement
permission required for most everything
mail : intermittent and non-priority
phone calls – weekly – 10 mins – booked in advance.

Dreams,
Yearnings,
opportunities –
palled.
Some coped
others moped
suck it up
if not, there were two ways out :

1)
medical diagnosed or self-inflicted –
tricky –
the authorities had seen almost everything before.

2)
an urgent phone call from home –
family illness or emotional crisis
intimacy requires presence. Now.
Difficult to disprove. Impossible to defeat,
just the ticket.