Stop

Collaborate and listen…

Kids, work, family, home, finances, future, friends, fitness, attitude – too much to carry all at once – making the delicate parts of your exo skeleton brittle, and bones more brittle still; anyone struggles with excess stress and all of a sudden

SNAP

You’re broken

Not completely blameless

Because you could have foreseen that carrying so much weight would exert too much downward pressure.

Sometimes we just need to stop.

To take the pulse of the world.

To listen. To really look around at what we see. Only then can our damaged & fragile lenses comprehend the imperative. We all need a little space. A little silence. A little time.

Now and then.

Unplug _-_ and restart…

(system restored)

Matt Scholes, England, August 2023

Secret Smile (1999)

The image of that secret smile that my memory holds

has waxed and waned as I’ve grown old

and though I still can hear the sounds and see the sights

they are blurred and faint, for I have new memories

and new dreams. (It just seems right…)

that when I meet you I should know where we last met

and how long ago.

It’s just polite

to ask ‘How are you?’

and then the image of your face is engraved on my mind

and each new engraving distorts the older ones;

like, at night, when you close your eyes and

pictures flash in front of you like slides

I just know that at some point, I’ll see your face, your eyes; and remember the old engraving

the faded painting

of your secret smile.

Matthew Scholes