Ever Given

Ever Given

There’s a metaphor stuck
in the
Suez Canal,
a floating reminder
of all
the banal
stuff that we carry through life.
There’s a simile, trapped
like a year run aground,
and the diggers and tugs,
the crowds that surround,
can’t get it unstuck.
For she’s holding us ransom
with personified grip,
so tight it won’t slip,
this figure of speech —
this beached vessel will
not allow passage
until we dig deep, choose to
wrestle with all of the secrets we keep.
Wind-tilted, sand-silted,
wedged tight in the banal,
let’s not lose sight of the voyage
beyond this canal
but, with skilful craft,
dredge and expose
the very edge of who we are
then begin to redraft.
And if we’ve never given
thought
to what
we ought
to jettison
then now’s our chance.
Let’s rid ourselves
of stacked high blocks
of rusty boxes,
unforgiven moments
ever given to entrap.
And then set sail
on fresh tailwind
paradoxically
freed
and
anchored.