Riding Up the Thames River to Kew Gardens


It's not so difficult a journey these days
to be in London, 2008. The weather of course
is the same as it has always been, the Thames
will never change, and that is the English way,
to fight the day to day shift, pretend time
is not a river but rather, a destination.

Much better: Ignore how the scenery morphs
from country to suburb to city. Focus your eyes
on the small ripples of brown water. You can
find yourself lost if you are willing to try.

When you reach Kew Gardens, be sure to look
into the lake when the light is perfect, when you
can catch a glimpse of the past, lost just beneath
the surface. And when you see the Chilean Wine Palm
forget everything you read from Heraclitus. Instead
concentrate on the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius.

Millenniums may, in the end come and go
like water, but it is what we allow to enter us
which is most at stake, most likely to change
us over the course of a life. It is our place to say
what comes and goes, what we acknowledge.

No. In 2008 it is not so strange a thing to find
one's self in London, on the Thames in April,
going to visit Kew Gardens while contemplating
the weathered face of time. And after all is said,
looking out the window of a small river boat
while moving up stream is not such a bad place to be.