Page 88 - Microsoft Word - 1_light travels_FOR FLIPBOOK ADJUSTED.docx

THE LONG TRIP
A gentle chat as usual. She lets me muse. News about my far-off daughter.
Then to the point,
“I need sleeping pills
for the long trip.”
Her children also study science.
My heart contorts. How hard they work. Her eyes twinkle. We agree
why we travel to see the kids
(cook, clean, moral support)
and how we spoil ourselves
sometimes on these journeys
with tickets to exquisite concerts.
We discuss old injuries.
She scribbles my script.
At the door I throw in a last bit,
“Soon science could make us a-mortal,
unless one gets run over?”
(Like Gaudí in his seventies,
by a tram... I imagine, while stepping back
admiring his fantastical incomplete cathedral.)
This gem GP’s retort, a reality check for the dreamer: “So, at what age will they stop us from waning?”