Orphaned Islands (Un)poetry

We both knew the answer –
some things are just known
without ever been spoken out loud,
information carried by the electrons of valence.
Que sera sera,
unless luck joins in.
Luck –
fickle, inconstant, independent
not made
not the prerogative of self-help
can’t be created, bought
or stored.
Luck comes along when luck decides to,
either it shows up, or it doesn’t.

Two tangents might touch at 90°
can cross,
at an airport
in a street market
during trauma. Chance is a black cat
or four-leaf clover
not be relied upon …… or trusted
no voting rights, or veto.

“Will we see each other again?”
Synapses cut the cards : NO
“ Yes.”
It was what I needed to hear,
what she needed to say.

For the time it was avant-garde
very
risqué
scandalous, even a little subversive.
Prime time television, late mid – evening
skits and satire
the conservative and the oppressed found it outrageous
and compulsory
an avalanche of complaints to the network and monitoring authority.
Canned
one run series
no reprise with repeats
or reprieve with second instalment
finished, forever.

At the last moment, of the last show
the MC,
creator
performer
and zeitgeist
spoke –
“many have written to complain
about content
theme
costumes
and language
especially the language,
well, at least I didn’t say fuck.”

Banks were common then –
even a small cluster of shops usually had one, sometimes two
big employers – school leavers and returning women
women, lots of young women on the counters.
She looked like she put on her complexion every morning
unblemished by time, stress or ultraviolet
and the uniform of the city’s most prevalent bank.
Even in prescribed clothes she looked like the girl next door
or high school sweetheart.

Every morning for a year –
we both caught the same bus, from the same place
after a couple months she smiled
after a couple more she said good morning
after a couple more she said hello
and a couple more, hi.

Each morning I resolved …. to ask
then it always seemed better to wait … until the next day –
definitely,
for almost a year.
After the summer vacation I decided
first day absolutely no procrastination – just out with it
she wasn’t there, or ever again.