Opening Thoughts

May 2020

 

Six weeks of stasis
Brought itchy feet and surplus chins;
Something had to give.

Uninstalled The Sims
And tried a new raison d'être:
“Get fit and stay sane”.

One hour’s exercise
Became my lifeline, my right,
My freedom to stretch.

I paced down side streets
And alleys for hours on end,
Out of sight and mind.

Whatever aimless
Route my feet chose, the end point
Stayed fixed: the canal.

The city’s waterway
Moved at a dignified clip;
A gentle constant.

There I found solace
But for one grim caveat:
It's littered to fuck.

I’d always been drawn
To trash, to the left-behind,
But this felt different.

This was detritus

Turned resident; natural and
Tat intermingled.

An intervention;
A sharp visual jolt from 
Objects jettisoned. 

I fast grew obsessed

With the cut, and its embrace
Of its faux-fauna.

A new goal emerged:
Catalogue these characters...
In haiku only.

I do acknowledge
That this form may not be best
Fit for run-on thoughts.

But be honest here:
Would you read this work in prose?
No. Didn’t think so.