Liminal

I live in the spaces

Between leaving and arriving,

Jumping and landing,

Fearing and surviving.

(Clutching my duffel bag on the bus

To dreaded childhood swimming lessons.)

Half asleep, half awake.

Tests all done, results await.

Sweet honeyed pause before

The axe falls, the hospital calls.

Racing mind, facing blind panic, the reels that wind.

 

Life in the corridor,

Walking between space,

Between night and day.

Nudge open the door

Between straight and gay,

Woman and man,

Adult and child

Tamed and wild.

Knowing our mind,

Follow our head

But inside dead,

Heart resigned.

 

We all live in the gaps

Of birth and age and death,

All fall towards the traps

Of future plans, distant hopes.

Some exist, some live,

Some persist, then thrive.

Embracing the time,

Trying to be, to feel and see

What is the essential me

Of the breath,

Knowing life is so much better than death.

 

So between take off and landing

We fasten belts, face the surge

Then softly slip, let time melt,

As between the first get go

And the time to let go,

Between the leaving

And the receiving

We wait, still here, but no fear,

Just numb, maybe some

Fun and company, face to face or on our phone,

But we die as we dream, alone.

 

 

We slip the ropes, cast off

And drift in lazy current,

Paddle from rocks, ride the shocks -

At times rapids, then slow we row,

As we slip where the flow goes.

Beyond the boundary, off the grid,

Not north or south, but somehow mid.

Peaceful floating till the banks stretch wide

And we slide into the fretting sea,

Flotsam, jetsam, surf and gulls… and me.

 

M x