-- The Mystery of Opposites --

by John Herlihy

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The mystery of opposites

What is one without the other.

The mystery of opposites

Serving as sister and brother.

One’s joy so firmly lodged

In the riverbed of another’s grief.

Love may run its course

But missing someone brings no relief.

The good me sometimes left behind

Not even knowing why did I go.

The bad me behaving so unkind

Being someone I don’t even know.

Opposites behave like the sea

They edge in, then pull back.

Frayed threads in the fabric of me

Things plentiful, things that I lack.

Avoiding hate, we try to love

Even if hate feels right, love wrong.

A black crow or a white dove

Both on the overhead wire belong.

The day runs dry, the night long

Forever waiting to be touched.

The day rises but night falls

I fall asleep, still untouched.

The young know nothing of the old,

The old know everything of the young.

The young learn how to grow old,

The old never learn how to stay young.

The pink face of the sunrise,

Dripping fresh out of the waters.

The red face of the sunset,

Dipping its chin into the waters.

Floating in water, held by waves,

Buoyant lightness, like this forever.

The certainty of earth and its ways,

May it never stop turning ever.

Night reminds us of the day lost,

Starlight diminishes the dark of night.

Day reminds us of the night lost,

Shadows diminish the bright of day.

The storm invading the calm,

Calm at the center of the storm.

Amid all the turmoil a psalm,

From the heart of nature torn.

Another morning, afternoon, twilight,

Felt in the waning of the days.

The flow of eventide till might,

Nature has countless inscrutable ways.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Sunday 10 December 2023