POEM: careering

careering

snagged

ever so briefly

your time here's

done been did

by chance (happen

stance) you glance

at work and friendship

falling all at once

short in the tooth

and early in the day

you set out in full drift,

the leaves from the trees

summer letters of resignation,

a swirl of gold (fool's perhaps)

and the wind whispering

"take wing"

(from the chapbook TRYING TO UNRAVEL SOMETHING, ANYTHING, 1998 - Boy And A Balloon drawing, 1987 by Andrew Smith)