On The Wharf

It was a simple and fleeting encounter

As I strolled along the wharf

Mouth open, jaw dropped, eyes questioning

A man half turned to scoff

As we passed I turned my attention

To the object of his display

A man and his wife were walking

In a strange, unfamiliar way.

Unsteady and ungainly

Fair rooted to the earth

Lifting each foot, as though from aspic

Carefully negotiating their massive girth.

With a stiff and arching rotation

Arms scything from rotund sides

They ponderously plodded the boardwalk

The movement, chafing their thighs.

It was indeed a strange sight

And unpleasing to the eye

But at that moment I was struck

And stifled an audible sigh

For in that instant I was returned 

To a callow youth on a site

Where anyone, or thing, was game

For humour, sarcasm or slight

“It’s all bought and paid for” he’d shout

As he stroked his enormous gut

To our ribbing and our insults

Of which he was often the butt

Now a man, my conscience won’t bear it

I will make amends for such hurts

And keep in mind such entrapments

For which we should all be alert.

For that man and wife are a symptom

An expression of deep gnawing despair

Of an enemy within us

An encumbrance we unwholesomely share

The homeless, the crazy, the beggars

The vagrants, the desperate refugees

We are perpetrators and victims

Like the broken, and the morbidly obese

We hurry by, as if to avoid infection

A guilty glance, ignore, look away

Smother the traces of mutual misfortune

And certain knowledge that we are all prey

Overdosing on food, drugs and blame games

Indulging our anxieties and upsets these ways

Crowning Bacchus and gorging the lotus

We uselessly squander our days.

We conspire in unspoken agreement

Not to unmask our source of undoing

Easier to condemn, get angry, be offended

And continue the slide to our ruin

Our petty minds blame others

For our corrosive colluding ways

Whilst behind our useless self-pity

Our jealousy and suspicion hold sway.

We know in our hearts we know better

Yet won’t alter the course of our lives

Usurped by our blind self-importance

Our shameful indifference will thrive