Waiting


My mind is a giant sea sponge
Waiting to be filled
I cannot reach beyond my grasp
It pushes, pokes, waking me at night
I see it in the darkness
Something grand, marvellous
Light comes too soon, sweeping it away
Yet the mind screams to be filled
More information is needed
How can I push through the invisible shield?
Find that place where answers grow
I read the books that tell me
There’s more power in mind than an atom bomb
That’s the problem.
We walk around with a quarter of a tank full
Never pushing the grey matter further, harder
Than we have been taught
I know more now than a year ago
Age creeps up behind, taking pieces I had stored
Telling myself I will do that tomorrow
By then, it is hidden in one of those tiny holes
It might as well be buried out at sea
I will never find it again
Like a sponge, the mind springs back
A new idea shines brighter, bigger
You run with it, hoping it will not fade 
Before you get it done
I have squeezed my mind every which way
Until it felt flat. This I find, doesn’t work
The mind pops back in strange ways
Fantastical thoughts run through like a raging sea
Each thought lodging in its own space
To be wondered at another day
How marvellous is that little grey matter…

© Anita Dawes2021