I’m so accustomed to waiting around

I sit looking 

around expectantly, 

though really I want 

 

nothing but I'm 

so accustomed 

to waiting around 

 

I’ll just take whatever 

shows up. Or I look at 

things I don’t understand 

 

and want them 

though what I want 

is understanding. 

 

I take them anyway, 

turning them over 

and over in my hands 

 

in the dark 

as if holding such 

things can give me 

 

back some sense 

of what it was like 

to really want something 

 

regardless of what 

I had already 

or how long I’d waited. 

 

The wheels on the bus 

go round and round. 

Round and round. 

 

But I am going nowhere. 

I’ve not been waiting 

for no bus. 

 

[Brenda Shaughnessy {1970- } 'Card 5: Hierophant', from Our Andromeda]