You can see more things
that make people tick,
you can see a completely
different way of life,
you can learn more about
how people live,
you can find out so much
about the world when
the sun has gone down
and the dark veil of the night-sky
both descends and rises –
especially if you work somewhere
and you are constantly
seeing people come and go:
whether it is a place where people meet,
like a coffee shop or a bar, or somewhere where people
go to get well like a hospital…
people who work a night-shift
sometimes see more than people
working a day-shift do…
it seems to me that you see more
about what makes humanity who and what it is
when you see them at their most vulnerable –
when their judgement and when their preconceptions
are impaired, and they are able to relax into
an experience with people who they
want to be around…
some people who work a night-shift
see the highest of highs and the lowest of lows –
they see and they encounter people
who have chosen to do things
that they knew would cause themselves
or others a great deal of harm…
some people see things,
some people hear things,
some people feel things at night
that sometimes follow them into their dreams
and haunt the hours of the day when they are awake…
some people actually like working
when everybody else in the surrounding area
is normally sleeping…
some people actually enjoy the job that they do
and their fellow “night-owls” that they work with…
some people working during the night
and encountering all the drives, vices,
and the people who choose to live their lives
under the shine of moonlight
rather than the golden halo of sunlight
is what gives them a reason to keep living…
for some people there is no other time
that they feel more alive
and are the most active
than while witnessing the constantly
revolving door of new faces
and unexpected occurrences that show
themselves and arise while they are
working on a night-shift.
vulnerability
My Poem ‘Too Close To The Sun’
Just like Icarus’ wings of wax,
everybody has something precious
that keeps them flying;
just like Achilles,
nobody is completely invulnerable –
even if they believe themselves
to be blessed by immortality;
just like Adam and Eve in the Bible,
there is nobody who has not looked
at something and has not been tempted
by the prospect of tasting and trying;
just as our eyes can only see
the light reflected back at us,
nobody should ever mistakenly believe
that they know or may have seen
everything that there is –
because just one step beyond the horizon,
above the clouds,
past the silver crescent of the moon,
there lies knowledge and wonders
that number into the realm of infinity,
improbability, and endless possibility.
There are times when our minds
can feel like a cave of echoes;
there are times when our memories
flash-back to life
like the lightning of a thunder-storm;
there are times when a brand new song
can be composed and heard
as the leaves of trees rustle
and as every-day objects
become instruments as the wind blows;
there are times when a heart
can be broken and then remade again
in an instant –
it is a moment that many mothers and fathers
have felt simultaneously
when they heard the first out-cry of life
from their newborn.
It is better to risk and fail
than to fail by not ever taking a risk;
it is better to take a chance
than to have your chance
at something taken away;
it is better to see what happens
than to live a life
as if ticking off things
on a check-list;
it is better to grasp
and fill a moment of time,
even if with a world of silence,
or music, than to watch a clock
tick down to the last second of the day.
Most great discoveries
are those that you have to dig for;
most great adventures began
by taking a running-jump;
most great relationships came to be
because the feelings and the connection
that you instantly felt
eclipsed all those that had come before;
most great myths were written,
and most great stories were inspired,
by those who chose to throw caution to the wing
and consciously flew too close to the sun.
markthepoet.me 