Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

Brothers
bros yet to be pop culture contraction
not quite clergymen
poverty, chastity and obedience
obedience given and demanded.
Gold hearted. Iron fisted. Teachers of adolescent boys.

He was an anomaly
Mr amongst conferees
sir to his charges.
“ Sir,” as if born with title
in class, “ what is the coordinate value? ”
“3y.”
“3y what? ”
“3y sirrrrr.”

Despite not being ordained
he was the only one who always began with prayer.
For some the self-consciousness of sensitivity
is never not
a bridegroom leading the first waltz
father in laws holding new borns
uncles at funerals.

Today at commencement prayer
the former army officer
is at loss
sternness momentarily without rank
he has a special intention
a pause.
Clouds drift. Time ticks. Paper rustles
as silent as a classroom can be
near magic offers excuse for confession.

A boy not much older than us
is to be sentenced today
a glass bottle thrown from a moving vehicle
struck a bystander – serious injuries.
The one probably to be jailed didn’t do it
the others in the car bible swore he did.

What is fact to one generation
is fantasy to another
fantasy
slow
then fast forward
as invention becomes consumerism.

Progress. Inheritance or bequest?
The Wright brothers fleeting airborne
sires jet travel.
Valves transistors and diodes
serially rearrange and contract : desktop, notebook, tablet.

The present future versus slumbering nostalgia
immobile phones
clunky photocopiers
bikes without the prefix Mt.
The sigh of memory ridiculed by comfort
except for the fantasy that now always will be.
Employment
recruiters came to universities and colleges then
no applications or resume
a single interview and letter from a professor.
Salary prescribed – start date by negotiation.

Five years later travel beckons – a decade of itinerancy
in the mid 90s a return to career and settlement.
Applications must now be typed.
Two referees
curriculum vitae
professional help is sought with the last.
A woman of indeterminate age
cheerful and irreverent
trims surplus detail – adds market skills.

For this employer a photograph 3″ x 3″ is required
a re-entrant to the workplace puzzles this necessity.
An exhalation and look
the look of a kindly aunt to a dim nephew.
“It allows exclusion the law doesn’t
gender
ethnicity
religion, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!
A picture doesn’t need to be a thousand words sweetie.”

Memory – often tempted by remake
revision, clarification, polishing
excision of truth and fillings of fiction
smoothed by self perception.

She had been on a holiday
free from the borders of respectability
a holiday fling turned to almost romance
young and cute
he would be a trophy – for a while

Used to having her way, she will
visa refusal becomes defiance – then marriage.
Some would have settled for memories
and a T-shirt.

They had hired him
a guide
an emissary to envy
easing affluent pilgrims to mountains
where climbers are found legendary, or out
adventure – vicarious – amputated of danger.

Three weeks long enough for
contract to shrink to comfort
and what was thought exotic …. turn erotic.
Should she? The Devil wins.

Later
the plane landed at the high airstrip
haloed by the light – a shining moment – there he is
waiting
as if he had been – all his life.
She knew immediately
an aligning – two souls orbiting in synchrony. Destiny.

A decade passes
as have they from each other lives.
A mistake. He was so inadequate.
She had always known that.