Calling All Angels

he sailed somewhere
one Saturday afternoon

I was just a child and watched
many cars arrive
headlights on

strange to see 
streams of light
in light

he sailed somewhere
and I drifted
in seas 
of silence

lonely silence

in high school years
I often dreamed beyond the classroom window
where there was a dam
the place where my father
often used to walk
my brother and I
it was all bush land round the dam in those days
and my dad gave us a regular taste of
a feeling for
other lives

but I had not been there
since the day of lights
I just watched
from the classroom
afar

till one day
I saw a white horse by the dam
standing quietly
beneath a tree
I watched 
sensing a connection with

 lonely beauty

it became a habit
each day 
seeking the presence of
that white horse
sometimes he stayed awhile
sometimes he just wandered by
but always
I felt
connected

I left high school
thinking no more of
that white horse

not till I moved to Tasmania

there was a dam on my property

and a white horse 
a lone white horse
roamed a farm
down the road

the dam was mine
the horse was not

suddenly
the white horse
disappeared

and not long afterwards
the dam was not mine either

I left Tasmania
my life broken

grudgingly 
I moved to Melbourne
a need for money breeds
drastic action

and I lived in a small, not so pretty 
rented
weatherboard house

not far from a main road


Blackburn was
hardly a place to find
grazing 
white horses

but the road was called Whitehorse Road
in the region of
Whitehorse Council

for the first time
in some years
I smiled freely
again

and now
I live on the Mornington Peninsula

I journey to and from my school where I teach
past farmlands
and many dams
and many

white horses

yes
they appear and disappear 
like good seasons and bad
but I have learnt to accept that
my journey
my pathway 
is marked by
signs
special signs

the presence of

my angel
my white horse
my father



Linking to:
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Calling All Angels