CHANCES

 In 1995, sitting on Vung Tau Beach I watched dawn break against the backdrop of the rugged hills of Long Hai. The term 'If Only' kept cropping up in my mind as I pondered the chances we have squandered in coming to the correct decisions both as individuals and as a country. Perhaps in 2004, with world crises on the brink and a number of western powers about to decide upon their futures we might do well to consider carefully the pathways we wish to travel and the leaders we wish to have.

P.L.

Like glow-worms on the roof,
Of some deep limestone cave,
Countless stars dot the heavens,
Searching answers I crave.
And as each blink reaches Earth,
Taking light years, yet now burnt,
Energy wasted, like those lives,
What lessons have we learnt?

On this beach at Vung Tau
Wonder expressed on my face;
Giant bodies as mere specks
Suspended far out in space.
Each wave crashes, with a roar,
Unrelenting, rolling in;
Spawned miles out in the depths,
White-capped in moonlight, by the wind.

During this hot summer night,
Tempered here, by the breeze,
Black skies as a backdrop,
Images young, I can freeze.
I think about what could have been,
Power politics dominate;
Chance to avoid repetition,
Slips and fades, will not wait!

Silhouettes of the Long Hais,
Haunting peaks, just like before;
Since last I saw you, thirty years,
A flash in time, since that war.
And like the shine on new metal,
Fading to rust by this sea,
No one will care when you're gone,
When we're dust, you and me.

Grains fall through my hands,
An hour-glass of quartz, now so fine;
Like our hopes, as a whole,
Rock remnants broken, clocking time.
Small fragments, symbolic,
Of minerals and shell;
Whereas once they had meaning,
Their function now, hard to tell.

And as my mind wanders,
I'm brought back, down to Earth;
Realisation of my size,
Just how little, I am worth.
Oh hindsight! Reveal thy wisdom!
Yet mistakes once made, cannot mend!
Even stars, waves and mountains,
Like chances.....fade in the end!

 

© Paul La Forest

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