One Day a Stranger Will Drop in on You.

[PrinceMyshkin]

One day a stranger will drop in on you.
He will look like your favourite uncle
or the principal of your primary school.
But you will know he’s neither of those.

You will wonder if he’s on a mission
or has a message for you.
“No,” he will say, “I was just passing by
and I was tired and thirsty and your door was open

and I wondered...
if I might have a glass of water?”
You give him one and watch
his Adam’s apple bob up and down.

You feel how refreshing he finds it
and try to remember when anything
last refreshed you as much.

He has two kids, you learn, who live
far away and a wife he loved, who left him.
But he seems to be at peace with all of that.

You wonder if he has a secret.
Everyone has a secret, you think,
and you long to tell him yours...

[firefangled]

One day a stranger will drop in on you.
He will look like your favourite uncle
or the principal of your primary school.
But you will know he’s neither of those.

You will wonder if he’s on a mission
or has a message for you.
“No,” he will say, “I was just passing by
and I was tired and thirsty and your door was open

and I wondered...
if I might have a glass of water?”
You give him one and watch
his Adam’s apple bob up and down.

You feel how refreshing he finds it
and try to remember when anything
last refreshed you as much.

He has two kids, you learn, who live
far away and a wife he loved, who left him.
But he seems to be at peace with all of that.

You wonder if he has a secret.
Everyone has a secret, you think,
and you long to tell him yours...


This is what poetry is suppose to do, even when it is emotion or compassion as your guide. The path is sure. The path is how we remembered it until it ends with something we do not remember and we are there for the first time.