Friday, January 26, 2007

Careful !

“You never change” she despairingly cried,
“Transform yourself dammit!” she wailed,
A fine mist of dust fled from ceiling cracks
As the door slammed behind her…

Change what? Transform how?
Surely I was still me?
The one she found and wanted
Above all others?

I look the same – a little older, but still…
I dress the same, all little things she wanted
And demanded, that I never alter.
I look at me in the mirror….

I guess that’s a start then.
So a suit is bought, never had one before,
And hair is cut, beard shaved,
I look at the familiar stranger in the mirror…

Next a job obtained, mortgage procured, pension arranged,
Personal transport acquired, work out at a gym,
Healthy food, quit smoking, rational rationed drinking,
Again, I look at the stranger in the mirror…

Tai chi practise, meditation and Pilates,
Courses for mental stimulation,
Goals set, sought and achieved…
I don’t notice the mirror anymore.

A year to the day, I pay a visit,
To her council flat, to find,
I’ve changed,
But she hasn’t.

5 comments:

JR's Thumbprints said...

Sometimes we're too busy to see ourselves.

Drizel said...

I think one must never change another person, you fell in love with that person they way they was and why would you want them diffrent.....I love this....allot of woman might hate me for this statement....but chicks like doing that(HORRID)

Pod said...

the worms has turned indeed. splendid!

Steve Isham said...

Destructive stuff, trying to change someone. Your end line reversal has a neat satisfying finality. BTW, thinking of 'Sunday Scribblings" this poem seems to me something of a 'chronicle' too!

Inconsequential said...

You know Ish, I really hadn't seen it as a form of chronicle until you pointed that out, and to think I really struggled on the prompt too...Though judging by the SS site, so have many others struggled with it so far.
Still, it's good to have a challenge now and then :)