Messenger

I see so clearly in my mind
when you removed me
from my day to day in Ottawa
and took me out to Kingsmere
for a breath of fresher breezes
some silence

We were perched on a rock
at the edge of the cliff
when I had a sense
of some scheme of things
greater than one individual destiny

Trying to situate myself within it
I arrived at the image of messenger
the sense of some individual perception
or knowledge that was my piece
of a greater puzzle to impart

Animated by my sense of purpose
I tried to express it to you
in whatever words were available to me
from my standard mass mind thought form
inheritance of English vocabulary
but drew only a puzzled countenance
and some comment about my incoherence

Today I see your lack of comprehension
and my subsequent self-consciousness
impact
that fixed the moment in my memory
so now I can recognize it
as a realization
leading to an understanding
of the human exchange
the service we perform

And I think of that quality of your being
that invited my attempt to express
something so unformed
so vulnerable