Just Around the Bend

Just Around the Bend… by Odin Roark Make-believe knows Hand in hand Guardian and child Never ceases to be As words meet words Sentences find paragraphs Pages turn new discovery Begetting chapter upon chapter And then… Often faith’s endurance knows no end Like a turkey too numb To know its head is gone Or a truck forever stuck in relentless mud Even the mind’s conscience ratchets its continuous drone Long past heart’s flickering pictures Have jumped off sprocket Coiling images’ remains upon a floor Always willing to catch the fallen Knowing restarting is always possible Yet In the house That might have been a home The phone continues to ring off the hook Like a metronome gone berserk Bent on satiating rhythm’s appetite Past the inevitable wind down With eyes closed… Survival holds firm one’s make-believe castle The house now empty Save for whispers from the past Knowing well the drafts of loneliness Shiver the drifting dust Becoming the only skin left to touch Unknowingly The residual past Moves through unneeded locks Once securing doors leading to Now forgotten passions of privacy Images rendered blind By keyhole mockery Remaining… The heart’s keyboard Once delivering its voice of hope and trust Now accelerating words no longer noticed Meaning hurtling past yesterday and tomorrow Like a bullet train screeching off its rails Ricocheting off walls once holding secure Now speeding toward a boarded-up station Once of hourly expectation A platform crowded with promise Giving back a passing ghostly blur So travel hearts in linguistic search Myth makers pursuing beautiful language Knowing delivery never guarantees Anyone waiting to hear the words Save perhaps the make-believe child Walking hand in hand Believing along with the writer That just around the bend…