Looking both ways

At Venta Icenorum a man runs
along ancient walls after sunset
a shadow against the sky

Is he running into the future
or into the past?

When we look through dust-boxes of your memories
we see the past:
secret pictures with no captions
fading postcards from forgotten journeys
diaries of household chores
keys with no locks

official documents no longer valid
dumb cassettes and lost technology

and then with no warning
we see the future: our own boxes
dumped in someone’s bedroom

our son and grandchildren
looking older
searching for something
they can make sense of
something that can bring us back
or send us on our way

shadows against the sky

 

This is a poem from my new book, published yesterday and called Waving from a Distance. One or two other poems from it have been used on this site. It is available from Amazon, should you feel that way inclined.