In the spaces between words
there is a gulf
wide and deep,
broad waters
uncharted
where emotions
sink
and shiver.

What is the difference?
I mean
what does it matter?
What I say and what
I do
are the same thing.
Aren’t they?

There is a place
where I can float

(peacefully)

buoyed by
uncertainty
anchored by
questioning
waiting for
the one
answer.

A little bit of cleaning... goes a long way

I just finished cleaning my bedroom, for the first time, oh, since we moved here. I've vacuumed in there before, changed the beds frequently of course, but I don't think I've ever dusted it or removed much of the ever-accumulating junk.

It was time to reclaim the room as a calm, peacful, inviting sanctuary, rather than just a place to sleep. I decided to remove all the kid-stuff and did a methodical clear-sort-purge routine on each piece of furniture. There was junk piled on every nightstand, dresser and bookcase in there. Whatever doesn't belong in that room left, and what stayed behind was dusted and put into place.

I thought about putting a mood-enhancing tabletop water fountain in there, even got it out of the box, then discovered when reading the directions that it must be cleaned weekly or the pump will get clogged up. Forget that. What goes in must be low maintenance. I want to simplify!

Now that I am tired and need a nap, I shall retire to my room, a haven of rest and relaxation. Nite-nite!

Off track

At the trailhead
I pause
to examine two arrows
feebly nailed to an ancient post.

One points in the general direction of a roughish
path barely discernable
amongst the bramble

the other resolutely
precisely
angling
to the direction of a worn,
well-marked trail.

Instincts are silent.

I take the clear way, not wishing
for stickers in my
socks.

The walk is long
steep
wearing
despairing

there is no end

there is only dust
miles thick
from the shuffling
of feet before mine.

Rain falls in big weeping
drops

each falling into the thirsty dust
no trace of moisture left
they evaporate just as
they dent the surface.

I took the wrong path.
Unknowingly.
It is too far
to turn back
now.