Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

He didn’t believe in God,
never missed a chance to diminish divinity
or to argue with someone who did
… so ridiculous
… so unlikely
…. so beyond fairytale as to be fantasy, or bullshit.
Strange that his own recount sounded familiar
familiar to the visions of the saints of Catholic education
perhaps it was assimilation
years of rebutting the same plot ….. leads to absorption
like repeated overhearing of slang
or forced recitation of high school French.

Apparently the aircraft landed, turned and
the sun fell on her – almost only –
lime lighted against the crowd
standing by the fence on the first day
“ you wouldn’t  believe it … in baggage claim
got talking ….”
A month of backpacking and ……. so wonderful –
croissants after years of cheap white bread.

Marriage … bliss … such a find … meant to be
just imagine he hadn’t taken that last-minute flight.
10 years …..
the magic diamond abraded by the concrete of ordinary :
mortgage, groceries, cooking, superannuation, gardening
friction … argument … separation ….
divorce.

He said
she was so inadequate,
he had always known that
said he couldn’t believe what he’d done,
or he had ever seen anything in her,
guessed he probably felt sorry for her.
 

He was the star of team,
our high school –
a bona fide footballing supernova,
blazing a trail of failed tackles
rampant in all the grades
big things possible, probable, no certain.
I’d never seen anyone move like him –
it was almost impossible to lay a hand on him
his torso was there, and then it wasn’t.

Footwork – almost non-existent
a video should be made of him.
It was
they learned to take his ankles
he was finished – two years out of high school.

What the hell was he doing there unsupervised?
– An arterial road at 8:20 a.m,
work traffic, school traffic, out of city traffic
a zebra crossing
he did …. then didn’t
stepping on … then off … to the edge
then away.
Would have been called intellectually handicapped once
not sure what the now politically bowdlerised  would be.
He is confused,
vehicles are confused stop .. go… go …stop … back on the curb.

I can’t – a 50-year-old male –
out of the question, but
it’s just  a matter of time until ….
I see an early 40’s woman, parking her car
I point and explain.
Got it she says
she takes him by the hand, to the other side.
She can – I couldn’t,
it’s the way the world these days
men are in danger, helping a child in danger.