Like Any Life, and London-Town

You pack – and pare – repack –
and something rare and wondrous
whacks your psychic seat:
the neat unutterably sleek swift
kick of recognition that the packing
and the paring actually do bespeak

exactly where and what and how
you now have learned to live:
excess off the shelf – sifted through
the sieve. You know more surely
what you have to give: yourself –
all shorn and unadorned. Ascend

the ramp into the plane and look:
miracles abound! And something
else astounds. Your narrative’s
alive and walking round. Like
any life, and London-town, you
cannot speed it up or slow it down.

.