strange this island I once knew
lost in the passing of time
a snapshot of memory, a facet
of what probably never was
or if it was, that was but one step
of a journey into becoming
an extancy far from discovery

around my strange island
in and over and through it flow
inescapable tides and currents
forever changing, transforming
eroding here, depositing there
sweeping, shaping, submerging
persistently forcing evolution

working hard in their efforts to
reimagine, redefine, rewrite, recast
come autocrats, plutocrats, democrats
every kind of -crat imaginable
and those who deny the label yet
fight their corner nonetheless
recreating strange in their own image

strange as I too am strange
with my history, my experiences
my beliefs, values, hopes, dreams
assumptions of what's expected
of this place I call, you call home
quarks of personal reality subsumed
by changing states of island being

top, bottom
up, down
charmed
strange


21st May 2025
Stephen Cooper