Sunday 2 August 2020

Oceans apart




Sometimes you don’t feel the distance, you talk
through the stretched time zones, nearly every day,
carefully aligning your staggered clocks.
Sometimes it’s just a text – ‘okay?’ ‘okay.’


At other times, the distance is a log
from here to the vanishing point, its weight
unwieldy, no language, no dialogues
to lift it, to break through, communicate.


So you leave it hanging, leave things alone,
you wipe off the scary scenes in your head.
You keep mumbling, it’s nothing, it’s the phone.
It's not him. It’s just the phone that’s gone dead.


Nothing’s golden at a remove, silence
equals no rare metal beyond a distance. 




10 comments:

  1. Poignant and painfully true.
    Hugs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hari OM
    Distance can be a blessing for some, indeed. For others it can become a tyrant. You have wrapped this in words of precious worth. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Distance is more of a tyrant in troubled times.

      Delete
  3. With distance, you don't really know what is going on, which is hard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Out of sight does not mean out of mind sometimes..

      Delete
  4. distance is very hard. At least my elderly father still emails, and we do chat. But Facetime is not the same is in person face to face time. Your poem captured anguish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no real substitute for in person face to face.

      Delete
  5. Distance is something we've had to adjust to. Missing distant loved ones is the hardest thing. Your second last stanza gave me a jolt.
    Keep well and safe, Nila.

    ReplyDelete