Less – A Poem by Jenny Middleton

groans like water sucked through
a fish tank’s filter –

it is a way of seeing half
as lesser, until less
becomes more

of a way
of seeing sighing

filling a house, then a street
of neighbours, each grieving
the loss of one man, or of a mother
or of a million loves
all falling, rustling
like the shiny foil coats
draped over sweating runners
when a race is done

less is the space
widening
centimetre by centimetre
above our glow-light
tetra fish
before we think
good thoughts again
and refill their water

less is losing, it is a way of letting go
and a way of lessening everything
filling and filling with pain.

Visit Jenny at http://www.jmiddletonpoems.com.