1 <br />In the Shadow Box, <br />one thing becomes another. <br />Nothing is fixed, <br />anything can become anything else: <br /> <br />the two men across the room, <br />whose whispering annoys me, <br />may become cows silently <br />grazing, with an occasional melodious 'Moo! ' <br /> <br />World peace may break out any day. <br />We've seen presentiments of that before. <br /> <br />Inventions come from that Box— <br />the car, computers, electicity— <br />laughed at, at first, <br />they soon transform our world. <br /> <br />Nothing has yet <br />transformed the heart <br />of humankind, <br />but that too is possible. <br />Suppose there's someone in the Box <br />whose smile Illumines all whose path he crosses; <br />the whole world will change. <br /> <br />2 <br />I inhabit a life of disappointment, <br />in the doldrums of my middle years. <br />The bright pathways I took, when young, <br />toward love, career, and money, <br />have been obstructed for so long <br /> <br />that all I hope for now <br />is not to die— <br />or <i>to</i> die, even, <br />just not to incur the wrath <br />of Fate's 'other shoe'. <br /> <br />Yet the mind <br />that sees this picture <br />projects a frozen road. <br /> <br />The logic of yesterday <br />can never create Tomorrow! <br />Somewhere a witch has cast a spell! <br />Send her back to the Shadow Box— <br />let the true Beloved <br />emerge in her place! <br />Stranger things have happened! <br /> <br />But, you say, <br />'Such things do not <i>just</i> happen. <br />They are an alchemy. <br />The force of change, <br />the Fire of awareness <br />—must come from you. <br /> <br />Then I shout, 'Yes! The freedom <br />to begin lies here with me— <br />that price I can pay! '<br /><br />Max Reif<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-shadow-box/
