Recently I have spent too many hours in Addenbrookes Hospital at Cambridge with an elderly relative. This has led to much thinking time in waiting rooms. I suppose the surroundings have made me consider mortality. On Wednesday, I vaguely remembered something I’d heard at a funeral ages ago about a ship disappearing over the horizon. Not being able to ‘Google it’ I decided to write my own, updated version from what little I could remember…
DEPARTURE
I leave them as I collect my boarding pass to a distant land and board the plane.
Back where I existed,
Someone says,
“He’s gone.”
And one by one
they look to where I was
and say “goodbye.”
ARRIVAL
In the arrivals hall,
far,
far,
away.
People await my arrival.
Occasionally,
those waiting,
glance up
at the arrivals board.
Suddenly someone
in the crowd
shouts excitedly:
“Look,
He’s nearly here –
Landing in five minutes!”
They crowd around the arrivals gate,
excitedly leaning forward
over the barriers,
for a first glimpse.
The only difference to Stansted:
There’s no luggage to claim,
I arrive naked.
© Baldock Bard 2014
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