Now

Now, I decide

to live in the moment,

like one enlightened.

I linger by the Paulownia, watch

petals fall to the gravel

in the arboretum.

Still, I think of what I have to do.

All pink antennae and glazy eyes

in a bowl, the prawns need shelling.

The door is ajar –

there’s one of those fast, impossible-to-catch spring flies.

A shaft of light reaches into the kitchen

like an arm –

I move through motes of dust.

 

I move through motes of dust –

like an arm,

a shaft of light reaches into the kitchen.

There’s one of those fast, impossible-to-catch spring flies;

the door is ajar.

In a bowl, the prawns need shelling –

all pink antennae and glazy eyes.

Still, I think of what I have to do.

In the arboretum,

petals fall to the gravel;

I linger by the Paulownia, watch,

like one enlightened.

To live in the moment,

now. I decide.

 

(First published in The Curlew, Spring 2018.)