The Moment
Poem
Published in the Mayfield and District U3A anthology 2015 and in the Kingston University Readers festival – Short Cuts 2008.
The Moment
There is silence.
For a brief moment
we search for something
in our heads
worth writing.
A scratching of pens
from my right,
my left,
in front of me,
echoes round baronial walls.
We sit in dutiful rows
inventing our futures.
I hear hints of breathing,
of concentration.
But I sit staring,
sterile.
I can feel their competence.
Thoughts flow from their heads
through their hands
and pour onto paper.
I am mesmerised by the flood,
the waterfall of words.
And still they write.
No pause,
relentless scratching.
Their papers scorch with the heat
while the sheet before me
remains coldly, laughingly blank.
I close my eyes,
search for a cauldron of words
I can turn on its side
the contents cascading to my rescue.
In sixty seconds
I see the futility
of the last three years,
living my life
with dry bread and desk lamps.
So now the moment is here
I am about to let it pass
without a fight.