Flavours

I watched them drink,

my mouth not salivating –

a god-given gift –

and around me saw the dances of life,

the different flavours of temperaments,

myself, themselves,

all human beings flickering together

for brief moments

before we expire.

To work in the fields,

to raise a child,

to leave a mark in history;

who’s to say which shape

a life will take,

which forms we assume

while we drift,

while we force our wills

this way and that.

An aching muscle,

a swollen ankle,

a broken jaw;

we are as glass to the rocks.

And yet we rise,

we show up,

we squeeze the nectar from the fruit.