You Never Know

You Never Know

Lying under a leafy canopy

dozing in the clement

Listening to the drone

of planes as they pass

going who knows where

Ferrying the unknown

though, maybe there’s one

that I’ve come across

but I’ll never know

unless disaster happens

and the name appears

in the roll call of deceased

I might shed a teardrop

or just feel sorrowful.

Although I’ll never know

if they were on one

of these planes,

that flew above me

this languid afternoon

while I fantasised

and wrote this poem

in my head whilst

lying beneath the cherry tree

©June Sciortino 07/08/14

'Fit' for work

'Fit' for Work

I’m free to return to work,

I can manage to walk a mile.

I can sit for an hour without pain.

I can manage to write a sentence.

I can give answers to questions,

which are nevertheless ignored.

I shout out in protest, please listen… 

to no avail, there is no empathy,

no attempt to understand qualms.

Awareness of my condition, none.

Robots in the guise of assessors

with no means to grasp abnormal.

Today I am normal, predictable 

But at times wire feels like it’s drawn

ever tighter inside my cranium,

until voices scream out  in anger,

coercing me to strike back with

impropriety and vulgar gestures,

I have no control, or escape.

This malady overwhelms,

it violates dreams of normality,

my striving for enlightenment,

a world where no one grimaces

or looks frightened when I approach.

The bitter taste of absurdity is

I will return to an ambient

where weird is worrisome, then

the whispers and stares will follow

and the voices in my head explode

and pronounce me unemployable.

June Sciortino