Alienation

The Rev. John Fairbrother

 

Peripheral glimpse catching a view.
A river, reflective, ambling with the road,
sweeping across farmland, beneath trees
shading banks where life might flourish
and detritus begins a journey to the sea.

In a flash, shutter-like, the mind receives
an image that remains, knowing beauty,
barely held beyond the instant of sight:
Seen at speed, seen by chance, valued
like hope, lingering in the troubled domain.

Safety commands attention for the road,
time for work the object to be overcome.
Vista pass like graffiti on a subway wall,
apart from purpose, leaving romance,
if alive, languishing in a wake.

A scene, insisting, caught in a beat,
Becoming refined in feelings cast
like shade across another landscape revealing
a fractured traverse where heart and mind
struggle beneath distraction and dis-ease.

©JFF