It’s a long way from fifteen to
Nineteen; from snatched hours
Of broken sleep to departure
By the light of a freshly
Broken dawn; from following
A knowledgeable guide to finding
The pitfalls for oneself.

Perhaps I was more grown up
At fifteen: at least I knew
There was still a long way to go.

Both times, the first port of call
Was the beginning of a change
That I did not see coming
In the midst of a recovery
From an unexpected blow.

First, out of darkness came
Light, but not in the town
From which I learned it could.
At last I found room to gain
From that vacated by
A keenly felt loss.

Then four long, tortuous years on,
The fabled honeymoon period
Gave way to something somehow
Even better as a weary boy
Became a new man, open eyes
Gazing along the next road.

And both of those thousand mile
Journeys began with a single step
From ship to shore,
From ill tempered sea to calm land,
As my tired feet temporarily traded
Fact for fairytale, weight for lightness,
The everyday for the extraordinary.

08/01/2020

Posted on 08/21/2020
Copyright © 2025 Richard Vince