The Ground Ahead Demands A Payment

I spoke to an old woman tonight

hospital staff had saved her unsettled heart, once again.

'That must have been scarey for you.'

'I suppose it was,' she answered.

'Way scarey,' I said. 'Yes,' she replied.

'They are looking after me well,

but bodies don't last forever, you know!'

This from a mouth who would not speak

of death or her own dying,

some injuries are difficult to locate

when the source was covered

with entrance barred.

She has entered a zone between

who she was and not fully knowing

who she is.

•

So here we are, devout

each in our own trajectory

in transit

traveling the known, yet not

the familiar yet with demands

even excitement, but pressed

with responsilbility.

Checking instructions they read

something like this:

Old ways will not work here

The gates behind you

Have already dissolved

You have entered at your own peril

Signposts in this territory

Rarely point the way

Although leave

Before your work is complete

You Fail!

```````````````

~Chandali PoetStory 2017

Image: Miya Ando [detail]