On the Coach

These brown blinds are strange,
From long to short they range.
Framing white windows, they
Both protect and obscure, may.

Light catches on them and plays.
Many patterns they form, these rays.
I see this world in many lights,
Even during the long cold nights.

When the sun is up and about,
The shades give one other a clout.
Bunching together, so I can see,
Through a rainbow symphony.

I turn sharply to my right side,
The seat's empty, like after-tide.
I see you in the distance, doing
Something you'd now be denying.

Music plays, their words ripple
Lightly, but they make me topple.
They are the words you thought,
The words you, not I, now forgot.

It's on the Coach, it seems, that
Everything happens: a little chat,
And maybe some pretence too.
Yes, always, pretence, that's true.

A year, to the date, and I fear,
We will forget all of yesteryear.
It's like I'm clutching at a dream
I wake up from, now just a stream

Of the real thing. A little glitch
Which I forget before I can stitch
The whole picture together as one,
Too late it's gone, now watch it run.

On and on till it's out of sight
And I can't follow, left or right?
The blinds are coming down again
They help to shield from the rain.

The rain that is squeezed right out
From the white clouds under, a bout
Of wet weather. When they open,
All is well, light once again seeps in.

These blinds of mine, shall I decide
To take them down so I can see a side
I've never been able to with them
Let down, I'll see more than it's hem.

Maybe then I'll understand why
They do what they do, I can try
To understand what goes on when
Blinds are let down, closing the den.

I'll be able to see the whole coach,
All the people and their approach
To dealing with troublesome blinds
Both involuntary and spoilt kinds.

It's a moving coach, it won't stop
To let us adjust blinds that hop
Up and down, so I'll have to learn
To hold them up till we make a turn.

We will slow down then, and I can
Ask you for advise on how to man
These blinds, till then my time I'll bide
And hope I'll see you in the seat beside.