Lock

The lock goes through the metal loop from the right,

not the left as you do it - though I know it locks in

both positions - and whilst this isn’t the only difference

that does not matter, there is more than metaphor in this

varying way we secure what is behind those doors.

It is the same with our eating diverse meals at our

differing times, or how each night as you go to sleep

I go to bed on the following day. And though we rise

at similar moments, it will be like this for the rest our

life, each of us heading for the equivalent place by

alternative routes.

                               So when I returned from being away

it seemed so much had been rearranged;

and whilst mere things remain as if the same

there is a sense that more has been forever changed.