Category: Unexpected

The applause is over
gown and mortar board returned
the future has become the present. Today.

My immediate superior has an announcement
I was not the best candidate.
Small of statute
large of opinion
he said he believed in speaking his mind.

Some people it seems
do not have the courage to take a risk
or make bold decisions
the out thrust jaw and indignant moustache
a Mount Rushmore testament
to him suffering no such lack.

A pause
then a second proclamation
an opportunity exists
for him to be proved wrong.
I sense it will be difficult.

Hansel and Gretel
child victims of second time marriage
unloved
and unwanted by stepmother
father controlled by a powerful woman – a fairy story.
Love abandoned to the forest
returned by pebble trail
via misfortune
and death
to love.

I admired the house
she took a sip of wine
said she had built it with her father
he being good at that sort of thing.

A standard jigsaw house
prefabricated, dropped on site
made beautiful by his craft
wooden ceilings
wrap around decks
panorama windows.
Just before job’s end he fell ill
dying just after completion
just after connecting drainage umbilical
just at summer’s end.

Before winter displaced autumn
from where ankles of floor meet earth
a finger stream of water.
As an engine’s first stray from melody
is classified unimportant
or flicked undeserving of attention
the trickle was dismissed as growing pains
it did
the trail had to be followed
beneath the floorboards
past piles
past joists
to where tributary drains delta
wedged carefully between sump and framing
a bottle of wine
“love Dad.”

Although our lives bisected segments of present
and an oblique angle of past
I didn’t know Robert well.
Only the basic stats
mathematics student – well above average
keen cyclist
head boy at high school
a steady girlfriend when young men were promiscuous
or wanting to be.
Claire was her name
they were
about the future.

Life after study.
I hadn’t seen him for a year
we were both at the same cycle shop
both buying parts
me for repairs
he for a trip to the United States.

Six weeks in the Austral winter
pedalling the Pacific Northwest
envy expressed itself
my last chance he said
said opportunity would cease after this.
Presumption asked when was the wedding
No. Not getting married
going to seminary
to study for the priesthood.