I Wish You Were Here

I WISH YOU WERE HERE

I wish you were here that I might extract
knowledge from your every fiber

I know, I know you'll inform me
that you don't store it there
you have it hidden in your socks perhaps
which you point out you're not wearing

somehow I will draw out your learning
by osmosis, if needs be,
and with that done and syphoned
into my being (shared not stolen)

I'll tip toe out of my old world
into my new one culture shocked,
chest and sinews bursting with the imput

like the expanding universe
I will have shrunk, becoming miniaturised
by the transmission's intensity

I now sit cross-legged
on the palm of your hand
as you tell me your information
goes out of date as we speak
and mutter science is based
on likelihood and probability
(nothing firm)

I sit pinnacled between fact
and possibility among your
stromatolites and super novae

in this position I can tease you
because my eyes sparkle
as yours do, I can smile
abscent-mindedly just like you

while you ponder on the powers
of osmosis, and search for your socks.


Frances Astor, 2004