The Voyage of the Neutral Mask

I wake
Open unblinking eyes
Launch into another
Day. Before me the world
Beckons. I move without thought
Or hesitation, leap into new parts
Of myself.

Like Venus, the sea gave me birth.
Spluttered,
Swam forwards, knowing
And unknowing
But going always
On. Always more strength
In me for another

Step.
I breathe in the mountain
Filling each crevice, every
Soaring reach and
Snow-capped climb. Behind me
Tangling vines fall away
Uncurl shame-faced.

Quick
And deft I
Climb
Feet slip
Fingers
clutch handfuls of
Falling gravel.
The forest shrinks to a memory below
Me
The world a pancake reality.

The pregnant sun lowers herself into
Night and it’s alert silence creeps closer.
I watch.
The plain spreads itself around me.
I watch,
Wait for another day.