Kevin Pocock .com

 

This is all

…that life goes down?

If I have children, I’ll be sure to tell them not to make any assumptions about life. Never take things for granted and never assume there are any constants or quantifiable dependables  in this world. Taxes? Yes. Death? Yes. That really is it.  Always, always, when you’re in the moment things seem to be trotting along, and then you make the mistake of  considering where you are, where you thought you’d be and what you thought you’d do. At that point you’ll probably think ’shit, I was way off’. Here’s the list of three off the top of my head:

Never would I go to university – I did

Never would I work in London – I am

Definitely would move to London – I’m moving a mile down the road in Kent.

I don’t know – it’s probably all a bit of a coincidence, but all of the big things that I assume will happen either don’t, or the opposite does. And ‘assumption is the mother of all’ of course…But the need to not assume can be applied to everyone for serious matters – the unexpected deaths of loved ones for example (and my thoughts are with some people right now), the trivial – being randomly invited to play football in your favoured position after nine months out of the game,  the fortune – finding money in a trouser pocket, and just the incredible stories of tragedy, hope, success and failure that echo around us on a day to day basis.

Socrates said ‘We are but dust in the wind’, and I’ve always had trouble with that. We have goals and we work towards them afterall, but in the working we get battered or soothed by currents and don’t always end up where we thought we would. Perhaps some of us are just better gliders?

I realise I’m rambling a bit now – but what I’m getting at is that really it seems assuming anything in this world is a fool’s game. I know people say it, but who really believes that they wont get where they think they will? Free will might be an illusion, or it might not. But I guarantee, even if nothing seems to happen of any ‘consequence’, when you look back you’ll probably think ‘Christ, how did  get from A to B? I didn’t mean that at all.’

I’m writing all of this because it’s been too long since I’ve had time to think about how we progress through out brief moments on the planet. I’m thinking about it at the moment, because the last two weeks have been crazy for me. So many things happening and going to happen that it seems for the first time in ages things are shaking up. When of course they are going on anyway – shaking up daily. The wind never stops blowing. The days never stop coming. And we never seem to stop assuming. The thing is, just now and again at least, we need to stop doing that.

Today a reporter died.

On the front line.

And I know soldiers do,

well it was a journo this time.

Does that make me despicable?

That it grabbed my attention?

See his honourable intention

was to break safe convention.

Report from the front and risk the

fatal shunts of bombs and bullets.

It’s almost too much for me to consider.

And I know that soldiers’ hearts quiver to stop more often,

than that of Rupert’s, which softened my ears.

But it brought it home once again.

The conflict, the wars that never disappear.

The complete waste of it all.

Kids with no two parents to call.

Just the one lucky enough to

be left, not killed, not cleft from

lives with the knives, guns,

small explosive suns that rise to die so quickly

that the day isn’t slow enough

to see the stuff of lives flash past.

To see the shadow it casts on those affected.

A single blast dissecting so many stifled shouts.

When loved ones hear ‘dear Rupert’ is no longer about.

But solace is taken

making what peace there ever can be.

He…did what he thought had to be done.

He. His parent’s son, with children of his own.

He disowned the danger.

Ranged further than my pen dares

In search of news from ground zero.

And to some, that might make him a hero.

But upon me, just a sadness falls.

Because Rupert, spelt anyway you like,

And called in any of the world’s languages.

Into any name that fell the same way.

Speaks to me about horrors,

and asks if we can stop.

Can we…

Make IED: Improvised Explosive Device

Mean IED: It Ended Definitely.

And for once be talking about

the death of a concept.

Than the death of life meaning more people,

without people.

Heard news and wept.