A therapy the morning offers for free,
a brief stop caused by the mirror
is how one man who prepares for work
facing who is more than a reflection
accepts he’s caught in a one-way dare:
“Can you, who makes me possible,
go out there and enjoy the journey to,
once again, seek a bi-weekly pay-cheque?”
A distance neither far or nearby the home
he leaves to resume how food & shelter continue
is where the avenue’s shoulder has withstood
another sleepless night of wild downpours,
provides clues found in designs left by
attempts of water to flow away from pavement.
Anything to remind him other men have a hold
on the life birth allowed him to begin,
on the cautious steps he takes, careful to
not miss how the water chose correct directions,
successful rivulets he won’t let his stride
mess up, or prevent them from what he believes
they formed to tell, ongoing patterns
all the way, like some sandy clairvoyance
beneath his boots, in need of no tarot cards
to show & remind him one day such a walk
won’t be required, and if any rivulets reappear
they will do so with what wealth really is
and the chance for him to understand
his pursuit of sanity was always it
and the rain’s health will be enough.
—
Chad Norman from Nova Scotia in 1992 won the Gwendolyn MacEwen Memorial Award For Poetry. His most recent book is Parental Forest (AOS Publishing). His poem, “The Shoulds”, was included in the Lunar Vagabond Collection as part of a time capsule scheduled for lift-off to the moon in 2025.
