Change

Poem 679 – A Chinese Moveaway

/ BenDQ / Leave a comment

A few months into university
I’d got used to you being away.
The house was ours again and, during
the working day, just mine. I’d play my music
loudly without the risk of disturbing you
and watch whatever I wanted to at lunch.
Is it wrong to say that it was good?
But Covid called and back you came. And stayed.
Today you put an offer on a house
and I am so, so thrilled for you, I am.
But I find inside that I’m not so ready
to say goodbye. An empty house no longer
seems as liberating as before.
I’m sure that I’ll get used to it, I will,
but today just feels a little sweet and sour.

Change is on the horizon.
(05.09.25)

© Ben Quant 2025
Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash

Poem 67 – In Transition

/ BenDQ / Leave a comment

I find myself in that point in between
Caught in the tension, in transition from
One state to another. Belonging to
None.

Restless I tussle, looking for home, but
There is no peace to be found in this place
Nowhere to lay my head and rest. I’m in
Exile.

This no mans land has no alms to share
No favour to give. Is this how water
Feels, not ice nor vapour, but constantly
Flowing?

But rather than despair, perhaps this calls
For patient endurance, believing in
The possibility provided by
Now.

To arrive, you first must travel through this
Junction. You cannot arrive without the
Journey, and so, let’s travel onward in
Hope.

So much of life feels like this at the moment. As we wait for the pandemic to pass, we’re in a state of tension between lockdown and normal, neither one nor the other. Of course, this is not restricted to such large scale fluctuations, but is a state we pass through in a myriad of ways every day.
(09.01.22)

© Ben Quant 2022