SHOULD I SPEAK OF THINGS BACKWARDS

SHOULD I SPEAK OF THINGS BACKWARDS

 

Should I speak of things backwards

as if the only things I could know and say

were always behind me

like starlight in my wake

or turn and look out into the abysmal darkness

not knowing what road to take

if the carpet will fly

if the theme I’m following

like my own shadow through time

will ever drop the veil from her face like Isis

and look into mine?

Stars evaporate in their own intensity like gods.

The spirit of the universe

is a shapeshifter

that never wears the same thing twice.

Every day shows up with a new face.

Every night’s a new lover in my place.

And the plot gets thicker and quicker

as the past asks the future

as if it read a lot of history

how things turned out

and the future asks the past

as if it were the watershed of the mystery

who came first and who came last

to the mindstream they both drink from.

Learning wisdom is learning space.

And it’s a big place.

 

PATRICK WHITE