CAVE

CAVE

by the time
news of the election
happened to reach me

it had aged, ten
twenty years

and I had
aged a thousand
so sarcastic thanks
due to Albert
  opening this can of worms

despite the shock of relativity
the news
      was soggy with conjecture
about coalition
of the centre
   vaunted talk too of
government
of national unity        and
me so far
    out the frame, swinging
pitching
in left field

not boding well
my initial gut reaction, by
the time
I’d sussed the story
seemed
    all talk of rebirth, revision,
repentance and renewal
at every
   little individual, and
of course, the national level,
was perhaps
a tad
    too hopful, insanely premature

but this analysis killed
left me crippled, ancient

as old
as Plato

him stuck way back when
still dreaming of his
Republic of philosophy, hierarchy,
meritocracy

and me
totally
      abstractrd
out of the picture

still hanging around,
       for better or forcworse
                
               somewhere
near the backwall of
his absurdly
over-estimated cave

***