Adequate Answer

.
ADEQUATE ANSWER

Halfway there
the nerve begins to fail;
mist shrouds the route
climbed at sunrise;
dream becomes dilemma
as your desires
and those of others
avalanche across
the plotted paths

Along the way
with fate’s connivance
you’ve built two homes,
planted feijoas, kaka’s beak
taught some poetry
and enjoyed uncertainly
the pleasure of the senses.
The results stand – unaltered
by what lies ahead.

While blood and bone and muscle work
one can but clamber on with resolution
and yes, as well, with gratitude.

Harvey McQueen

I wrote this poem in my mid-40s. Now, I’m in my mid-70s with an incurable muscular degeneration. I look back on the intervening 30 odd years with gratitude and thank that middle-aged bloke for his resolution. There have been many good happenings and events in that time. Of course, any answer is inadequate as well as adequate.