Muddling

No one knows the struggles

Behind the progress we display

Insecure and faking it

The masks that hides dismay

To steer a course for brighter shores

The fine path that we blaze

Navigate the unthinkable

Opaque, veiled in haze

Life in a nutshell

Leaves us a little crazed

No one makes it through this life unphased

Remember those years of innocence

Before we ever learned

About control or jealousy?

Before fingers got themselves burned

Nurture trust that eats like rust

Weakening the soul

Accept the things that I can change

Release what I can’t control

The messenger with an allegory

The parables learn and teach

The waves that ebb and ripple the sand

That collects beneath our feet

I saw you and you saw me

But did we ever really know?

Caught and carried by the winding river flow

Destiny and destinations

Real but also perceived fake

Walk on water, wintertime

Summer fall into the lake

I can tread water timelessly

But I would rather swim

Depths and layers, unfathomable

Insecure in your own skin

Abrasions on the elbows

As we climb for higher ground

Try to drink in the beauty that surrounds

I know where I come from

I know now where I’m at

Life is more about the lessons learned

Yet we sit here growing fat

I seek the movement, cradle rock,

That soothes us while we sleep

Lament missed opportunities

Savor the ones we reap

I’ve no clue where I’m headed

And with that, I feel ok,

As long as there is another day

I can see the beauty

Though vision sometimes blurs

Obscured by the vulgar

And reactions of a cur

Try to keep your head above

The waters volume’s flow

Now I know that I’m here

Direct me where to go

The universe is a fickle thing

We’ll never understand

A beach that made up of grains of sand

The rocks erode and crumble

Beneath aquatic flow

I know I’m here, impermanence,

but don’t know where to go

I feel frightened and excited

Simultaneously

Bend, yield like a windswept tree

Roots set solid in the earth

Fixed to where I’m found

Half our life is buried underground

Winter rips the leaves away

Endure a bitter sleep

Await the spring when

The sap begins to creep

Life restored

Stand on solid footing

The land that shapes the shore

Surrounded by a beauty you can’t ignore

Time is so transient

Yet you feel like standing still

Must make momentum and movement

And never lose our will.

Edmonton, AB, Canada