Inner Life

Mar 27 2011

99% of life

is showing up.

You can be a boring witless schlub,

just get there on time

and dress appropriately.

It’s this kind of loyalty

that gets their respect.

Especially when there’s heavy lifting

in-laws

or lots of paper work.

Marriage often goes like this,

your eye can wander

so long as the rest of you

stays put.

And on the job

look busy

and they’ll think you’re indispensable.

Except, one day, I left,

the kettle on

bills unpaid

a sink of dirty dishes.

I wonder if I’m missed;

or if I’d become invisible, over-exposed,

too familiar to notice.

Where does one go

on such an impetuous whim?

Out, into the world

or in?

A sheet of paper

thin, unwritten

infinitesimally folded?

Or a puff of smoke,

diffusing in air

until its molecules are found

everywhere on earth?

By now

the kettle’s boiled dry

the bills forgiven

the dishes done.

And my place has surely been filled

since I’ve been gone.

99%

is showing up.

And one-in-a-hundred

abscond.