Home  Poetry  About   Events   Workshops   A fracking conspiracy   Poetic Portraits   Instructions   Shop    Gallery   Contact
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 – Tuesday 5:17am

The Amsterdam arrival lounge was full of potted trees.
They rustled green and gold and kept the travellers at ease.
And here sat Veronica in quiet contemplation,
Focused on the here and now: deep in observation.

Waves of men and women on a rush of hurried feet
Were Veronica’s distraction as she watched them from her seat;
Rolling through the airport on a swell of peaks and crashes
With people pinging off to left and right like little splashes.

Jeremy was old enough to know that he was lost;
That he’d disrespected magic; that he’d have to pay the cost.
The feeling of abandonment was welling up inside –
All that he had wanted was to find a place to hide.

Everywhere he turned were people pushing left and right,
And Jeremy was buffeted below their line of sight.
Quietly he whimpered, “Invisible is mean.
“I’m scared. I want my Mummy – I don’t like not being seen.”

He pushed his way through forest realms of trouser legs and skirts;
Through cologne and perfume storms and a wind of ironed shirts.
What if he was never found?  What if he should die?
His eyes were wet with fear but his throat was almost dry.

Finally the crowds dispersed and Jeremy was left
Like a lobster in a rock pool: battered and bereft.
Veronica observed him as he washed up on her shore
And, instinctively, she knew he was the child from before.

“Hello Jeremy,” she said, a sparkle in here eye.
“Who are you?” croaked Jeremy, determined not to cry.
“I am Barbara. I’m a witch. I’ve come to help you out.
“I know that you’re a wizard. I know what you’re about.”

Jeremy was speechless in the shock of what she said.
As she looked into his eyes he could feel her in his head.
“I know that you are angry that your Dad has gone away,
“But you can’t keep being horrible to Mummy every day.

“She loves you very much. She does all that she can do.
“Life is not straight forward and we HAVE to muddle through.
“And punishing the people that we love is never fair.
“You can say it doesn’t matter but you feel it and you care.”

Jeremy was overwhelmed. This stranger knew it all,
And when she stood he saw that she was beautiful and tall.
“Come with me,” she said. “We are going to find your Mother.”
He took her hand and nodded, and they smiled at each other.

She sat with him at ‘Lost and Found.’ They held hands while they waited.
“I’ll only leave,” said ‘Barbara’, “when your Mum has been located.”
Minutes later word came back that she was on her way.
So Veronica departed – she didn’t need to stay.

She looked back from the exit doors, awash with sweet delight,
Both behind her and ahead of her, the world was bathed in light.
The Mother and the Son were immersed in love’s embrace,
Whist in the street the busses waited,
In a world not yet created.
Like a present, years belated,
Sun light struck her face.
 
 
 
Please leave comments here using your Facebook account