LostLagoonFound

My first visit to her next new city, now a country apart
Only today do we have enough time to waste
On a serendipitious expedition to find the lost lagoon
Although I secretely wonder how anything lost could be on a map

Florentine crepes and chocolate strawberries apetize our path
Through the week’s first sunshine on savory robson street
Flooding our senses with sensible senselessness
And renegotiating reminders of all matters, now trivial

I self-suprisingly suggest roller skating
prompting my youthful relative to exaggerate my relative decrepitness
my dexterity long forgotten, like the distance once between us
we engage in a playful dance of the ages, the aged and the ageless

Until we find ourselves Enroute to nowheres
in a quest for Sunday memories
Embracing each upright encountered,
we gleefully wobbled like newborn foals

Then recovered enough bravado to not turn back or back down
Our stroll becomes a 12km test that finishes on uneven sidewalks
Although our newfound courage is clouded by disapproval and laughter
we are too consumed by our accomplishment to let others invade

like all seditious travels the return is as foreign as the start
freedom that we never knew existed when we were unharnessed
somehow connected another memory of separation, not abandonment
the lost lagoon of our love found not wanting

Even though I secretly wonder how anything lost can be found
Her life now evolves Less around my fatherhood,
As my life evolves less around her childhood
It is only normal I reason to myself

On the map of my statistically anespectic uncle role
As we continue to walk with renewed respect for each other
And the comfort and safetly of shoes
That have been walked in for a long time

With total disregard to their mission or purpose
Other than to be there when needed
Whenever called upon for a quick stroll
Or a journey across the country

After veggie dogs and some photography at a war protest
we retrace our steps, soon joined by evacuees from still life
At the crowded turnstill, my daughter infiltrated the front
Knowing when the gates open that the race for dignity ended

A prime seat saved for one, promised for another
Became the line crossed by each father
I wanted my child’s offering
He wanted to offer his child

Words hurriedly measured frality and committment
While battering the seemingly uncaring passengers
As our daughters stood as somber sentinels
Witnessing male rage and their future modeled

My peaceful self saw his true nature
And understood the protection-level male primate
His anger transparent and ridiculous
Yet released with abandon in an unstoppable procession

My coolness inflamed his anger
His crudeness offended my sense of scale and theatre
Each position dismissed by righteousness
I watched his daughters illusions evaporate

As stolen stares absorbed the exchange
Searching for signs of flosum
For some as yet unplanned dinner party
My daughter quickly, intelligently offer her seat

As our sea bus paused waiting for strays
My passive/aggressive humour met his colourful assault
The primal scream held all captive
When a challenge to step outside was ridiculed

As we competed for false pride and dignity
Long after the seat was given up
the cry for justice, as in all wars, was unjust
To those securely on safe shores of childhood

What is right when it must be taken my might
What is fright if it brings no delight
It began with rage and indignation
And ended with an apology

But no understanding or reflection
Just the futility of making a smiling man angry
Unable to dissolve habitual patterns
Or provide any path to peace

An adult view of a childhood fear of an adult view
Resigned to the familiar
With the suspected truths of youth
Another memory not wired for civil realization

I secretely wonder if the lagoon can be found on foot
My fatherly self swells with painful wisdom
With lifes design beyond by reach
I accept that I am without the words to teach