(journey Inwards Collection) .... Epiphany In Taormina Poem by Janice Windle

Their last day.
Ten ordered days of
breakfast at nine
on the terrazzo.
On the beach by ten.
Flawless sun,
servile waiters,
loungers in rows.
Or sites to visit:
Agrigento.
(Splendid temple shells
made tawdry by August crowds)
A day trip to Stromboli.
Rigid adherence to the schedule
(but the god would not perform
for the little boat of unbelievers) .

And now
a last look
at Taormina.

And she loves the little town
Above the sparkling bay.

And it’s not that she’s not grateful
to the man who has made all of this possible.

And it’s not that she doesn’t recognise
that without him she might never have seen

Singapore (space age shopping malls) :
Manilla (drowned in six muddy inches of monsoon rain) :
Katmandu (the Ganesh figures set in pavements,
the terraces of rice
and oxen ploughing in the ancient way) .

It’s not that she hasn’t appreciated
his need
for the rigid schedules he has written
for their days,
their years
together.

But as she photographs the Graeco-Roman arena
as he beside her grumbles in the heat,
as he turns aside,
avoids her eye, avoids her hand, avoids, avoids,
she looks up for a moment.

Framed by a first-floor balcony,
peeling stucco, grey-green shuttered,
an old man in a soiled string vest
leans on the iron railing and becomes
the object of her rapt scrutiny.
If only...
If only...

The handsome head beside her
is mouthing protests
as the ancient above them
casually surveys the street.

If only...
If only...

Behind him the dark recess of the room, where his life waits,
rests cool.
The pattern of his life waits there,
rests in the cool, till his will gives it motivation.

But on, on, they must hurry on.

And it’s not that she doesn’t appreciate...
not
that she’s
not
grateful...
to the man
who made all of this
possible.
And it’s not that she doesn’t
appreciate...

But

But

As he leans there in the shadow,
she finds an overwhelming desire to

be that old man, to

inhabit that dim-lit room.

To possess
all the precious freedom
that she perceives he embodies
as he leans on the rusty railing.