At the gatherings

the family comes

sliding in with nostalgic memories

and with the patterned ways

that have always been,

and always will be,

till one does not

turn up to the gathering

one day having gone

to the exit that is one way.

 

And they sit around a table

and eat with their usual familiarity

and talk about the days gone

but never the days to come,

for theirs is a place of remembering

and theirs is a time when

what applies is what was,

and this is what has always been.

 

Family gatherings are the place

of the established order

where, despite all that those

in the family have become,

the hierarchy stays the same,

and those that carry the family wisdom

retain their state of subtle power.

 

From the gathering

the family leaves at

the usual and appropriate time,

and they go back to their normal lives

and never speak about

the family gatherings until

the time of meeting again returns.

 

15/10/2016