19 december 2005 our shared existence
15:30 ...ice on the pond in Sandy Road... most of its surface is in strange wispy patterns of frozen waves or ripples... but the water near the fence is unfrozen and ducks are floating and swimming in it... they congregate close to where i stand while a French-speaking family gathers on each side of me to remark on the way some of the ducks are half sliding as they walk on the ice... and just now i saw a water bird of some kind land on the ice in a long slide of several metres...
a fallen branch sticks up out of the water in which there is a reflected shimmering mirror image of it...
Later: Highest seat, overcooking the Vale of Health and Central London beyond... in pink and blue mist... the air is wet and still...it's been sunny all day beneath clear sky... but now the daylight is fading so i hasten to walk across the southern heath to reach the station before darkness.
Heathland near to the station... clear sky, city lights, bare trees, a wooden seat dry enough to sit on... no wind whatever but the air is freezing, a soft light from the setting sun and ducks calling in the distance... someone in a white coat and white shoes is walking slowly across the heath and shows up against the greens and browns of the landscape...i walk on a solitary path towards the water... a reminder of the path we all tread in our separate lives... between our arrival on earth and our departure from it...
...i pause to look at the familiar houses on the other side of the pond and then i see swans and geese and ducks standing in the shallow water and i bow in the darkness to our shared existence...
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