Alan Watson's Poetry & Prose

FLIGHT

By Alan Watson

James had been reduced to bare essentials. He rented the smallest of flats so he could afford to pay his many creditors. The car belonged to the company. There was no garden. The lack of cash limited his social activity to occasional visits to the Rose & Crown, which served the cheapest beer in the village. The downside was that there was no choice of beers. This depressing fact was a reflective symptom of the same wider lack of choice in his life due to his past mistakes. If people create the world in which they want to live, then most observers would rightly conclude that James had not made a good job of it. Finally, on an exceptionally hot day in July he wanted to flee.....
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pounding the tow path my steps are heavy, the dry path hard beneath my feet.....still running, but more slowly now, I'm not as fit now, keep going, just a little further, overhanging branches in the way, overbridge ahead, up over the canal, mind your step, watch the water, still canal water, occasional ducks, a pond near the canal with lots of rushes and reeds, overgrown, stagnant water, stagnant like me, needs cleaning up, needs some help, what caused all this decline, where will the help come from, will I survive long enough to accept help, do I even know what kind of help would help.....breathless.....stitch.....pain from the stitch, too breathless to run it off.....too past it to run it off......I'll have to rest.....a lock. Getting my breath back. An old lock on this canal which leads to a wharf, from the industrial age where valuable goods were shipped, I walk on, walk on, breathing deeply and wiping my brow. Another lock. Immediately downslope. There's a thing. These locks are well maintained, in use by pleasure craft in this pleasure age. My decline is down to misuse. Misuse of my own funds. Pleasure seeking world. Got a problem? Solve it by seeking pleasure. Relax, everything will be fine, no need to worry, so long as you enjoy yourself you can forget your troubles. It's amazing what a short sharp bit of exercise can do for the mind. Make it healthy - yes, healthy body, healthy mind, but I need to do more work on that.....it's only five minutes since I was telling myself of an obvious decline and worrying about my pain threshold.....I'm sure I used to be able to run for seven miles without a rest. Still, these locks are interesting. You know, most peoples perception: rivers flow, whilst canals are static. Well that's not quite true. Water does flow in canals - imperceptibly when watching the surface at a distance from locks.....but at the locks it is obvious the water is flowing. Boats may travel in both directions, but the water only goes one way. The lock fills to take a boat from the high level, and as water is released through the sluice gates, finding its way down to the lower level. So canals require a feed to top them up, otherwise they would gradually drain through the use of the locks. Another lock, by 'eck, there's a whole series of them, stepped down, one after another, there must be five.....at least that's what I can see. Reminds me of the decline of the Panama Canal.....they say deforestation is not allowing sufficient generation of cloud to produce rain, so the streams which provide the feed will dry up eventually. Or quite soon. Depending on who you believe. How bad is it really? Thoughts back on my own decline. Its bad. I think I can recover. Given time. They seem willing to give me time. Times vary depending on who you believe, but the people who have climbed the Himalayas more than once say that there is a change. Apparently when you see the retreat there and then, when its there, its as if it confronts you.....the lack of ice, the world, asking to be noticed.....why dont you do something. I think it would be surprising if the Lord created a world containing enough hydrocarbons to give a species the ability to cause its own destruction. Or perhaps that's the test. We have been presented with just that ability. But we're already overdrawn at the environment bank and if we fail the planet now, our children will not inherit the secrets which it has so far withheld.....the decline is happening, at the margins its obvious, like the water through the locks, the margins are changing. Just ask the Polar Bears.