Short Stride Forward: Poem on a Napkin

Scribbling between courses

Image courtesy of the author

Walk ahead, striding forward,
Eyes wide open, step toward
A vista wide and broad to see;
Hiding little wonder,
Void of mystery,
One step out, one foot up,
Think now, always, of the cup
You deign to keep half-full,
Dreams from which your heart unspools.

How bright! how clear!
These thoughts of ours we hold so dear,
These promises of somethings-better,
These follies that free as much as fetter,
Keep in mind desires can’t be trusted,
As, to be realised, they require the muster
To bring them into being,
That seeing is believing.
Those concepts on paper
May just
Stay crushed
Into fragments of fantasy,
Lest we bring them,
Take them out,
Into reality.

And aren’t they nice; aren’t they swell?
When shadows cloud, when lives are felled…