We are the worm in the wood!

More water slides past. I am surrounded by swirling fog, gazing down at the black, black water, tickled white by the ship's swift passing. A line from Kipling's Pict Song keeps coming back to me: "We are the worm in the wood!" I am very much the outsider on this boat full of Americans: hovering just out of sight, in the shadows, disappearing as soon as I'm seen. I am the worm in the wood!

A Pict Song - Rudyard Kipling

Unbeliever


Don’t turn your head

when shadows flicker,

deceiving the eye.

By the time you turn,

I’ll be gone.

Who am I? You know,

you’ve always known.

I am

the young one, carelessly laughing

        at your fear.

I am

the lost one, wilfully straying

        from The Path.

I am

the old one, fiercely living

        where you have bowed your head.

I am

the grim one, always alone,

        facing the storm

                embracing the gale

                        smiling into the teeth of the tempest.

I am

the forgotten one, remember me?

How you could have been …