Erratic Boulder

(1)

The winter sun does not reflect itself

in my furniture, dull with the passage of time.

Nor on the tiled floor, glazed

with thirty years of foot tread.

Nor even in the glass of a picture frame

that should reveal grey tectonic plates of sky

drifting westward.

Instead of which a grime coagulation

gathers at its corners, like flames,

Threatening to consume us-

A young couple in our prime.

(11)

We are at an erratic boulder

discarded eons ago by a river of ice

I can't remember its name-

Somewhere in County Down

I am sitting on this relic cross-legged

You are standing beside me

My arm is on your shoulder

Your two hands clasp my left knee

My head is in the clouds

Your head is tilted

We are both smiling

Behind us a path leads to this erratic

obstacle that we have become

The future is blank, a camera lens reflecting

where we are now

And people have been here before us

The rock is graffitied, the path is worn.

(111)

You will keep me on this pedestal for some time

I will fall off

And then the marriage will begin

And our journey will be much like that

of many other couples living in our times

We might learn something from that

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2018