Come, the last Dance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

“Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” – Winston Churchill

Where there is unity, there is always victory.” Pubilius Cyrus

“The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, I where the dance of life really takes place”. - Barbara de Angelis

No preamble to the poem today; hopefully, it will speak to the reader in much the same spirit as the quotes above.

COME, THE LAST DANCE…

I go to where I grew up,
play with other kids in my street
such childhood games
as only children can make fun,
no hidden agendas
or cash changing hands on the quiet,
time yet for all that
once schooldays left to improved versions
among adult fictions

I go back to teenage years,
nursing such hopes for the future,
anticipating the fruits
of success, no prospect of failure
getting a look in,
too busy making plans for adult days
and enjoying the landscape
with close kin and peers in ways that only
confirm immaturity

I go back to post-school
disappointments and start to climb
various ladders of opportunity,
failing to reach the sky, hitching rides
on clouds into lands
of in-between, mind-body-spirit falling
from this heaven to that hell,
Earth Mother, no less empathic or beautiful,
nor inspirational

Yet, hillock, a mountain…
each promising stream, another river 
to cross in the absence
of any bridges available to eyes blinded
by inexperience, ears deafened
to wiser words by an ego screaming abuse
for its failing to stay any course,
weighty sensations of regret, shame, self-pity,
crumbling me

Came into No-man’s land,
Earth Mother’s crying out for succour,
silencing ego, letting
heart-and-soul speak, lay bare home truths,
finally acknowledging and taking
responsibility for being here, error of my ways
staring me in the face, telling me
to get a life, start regenerating my personal space
into a kinder place

So, a new journey begins,
mind-body-spirit urging my every move
to put the past behind,
look to a future, both eyes open, ears too,
watching out for road blocks,
attending forces meaning me well at every turn,
trusting heart-and-soul,
not least by having it keep me safe, guide me true,
and enjoy the view

Time passes, self-awareness
actively engaging with mind-body-spirit
to learn share, move on,
through all its tomorrows, with heart-and-soul
on board, less afraid of a future,
nor needing to hang on to some reinvented past,
let fake smiles hide real tears,
for rogue forces having us  run against each other,
not so, Earth Mother

There can be no going back
to the way things were but in such dreams
as are often only escapism
from such ways as may well need we address,
improve on, in the spirit
of a common humanity and its capacity for love,
fewer factions of one-upmanship
homing in on cultural differences as enemy forces
potential for wars

Whatever, life but asks that we give peace a chance
to partner our last dance...

Copyright R. N. Taber, 2022