CALM Publishing

NO MATTER THE AUDACITY

 

As though an enlightened persona

Emerged from the pandemic

A state of submerged participation

Had evolved to a permanent distancing

From individual risk taking –

The immersion vocally

The submission visually

To let someone you don’t know well

Look intently at your face

Unmasked

Look at your nose, lips and teeth

See the set of your expression

Note the vague signals of the eyes

Always peering

Behind those cheap glasses

So that even the portals of consciousness

Are seized in antiquity.

You can’t tell if they are 30 or 60.

Those eyes – strange eyes

Being so opaque as to age

While the rest of the face

Is seized by the lines of weariness

That come from experience

Which is all we ever get

In this life or the next

As we imagine it

The experience of being alive

And the thrill of knowing it will not last

            No matter the money

            Or the genius

            Or the luck

            Or the audacity     

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