Connections - Michael James

CONNECTIONS

by Michael James, April 2015

Feet are all right,
                But of what use are they if eyes can’t direct them
                Or brain keep them going straight?
                Knees still work
                And what of that if hips can’t keep them moving?
                Hands can clutch
                But here’s the catch,
                Back can’t carry them.
       
                 Is the mind still on?
                Does it yet light up
                As good food comes to table?
                Or when lovely lasses shake their tresses?
                When thrushes sing
                Or children play?

                Of what use is any good thing
                If it’s all alone, with
                No connections or directions,
                No place it can call home?

                Imagine all objects discreet,
                No messy relationships trailing,
                Not a single work in progress,
                All matters and scores settled, completed,
                Projects ended, promises kept,
                Ambitions fulfilled,
                Dreams realized....

                Yes, life would shudder
                Like a train slamming on the brakes,
                Locked up wheels skidding on the rails,
                Each carriage banging into the one before,
                Snapping linkage with the one behind,
                          All down the line
                    Connections failing, then
                       The train, with an angry
                            hiss of escaping steam.
                             stopping.