Poem: My Life Has Been a Lesson in Detachment

Spring clean your life, they say.
Out with the old and in with the new.
With a long-handled feather duster
Reach up into the corners of your world
And tickle away the dead-weights,
The cobweb friends of your past selves.
Who no longer stay in touch,
Or ask you how you are,
But expect you to be there,
Ready,
For when they need you.

Now, that simply will not do.

You’re different today.
Value yourself more than before.
No longer willing to accept second best,
Or other people’s laziness.

And often you wonder why
So many people tend to cling on
To everything that has gone wrong.
Is it a fear of being alone?
Of letting something go
Without knowing what will take its place?
Unbelieving that a new friend can be made,
Or that they will hold the gaze of a new lover’s face.

Please, have some confidence in yourself.

The truth is, this isn’t your first time.
Relinquishing a relationship, both amorous or platonic.
In fact, you’re a dab hand.
Closing the door gently
Or slamming it with a bang!
Leaving them behind,
In a pocket of time,
Not to be disturbed.

And now the wind is blowing in a new direction.
Change has come around again.
What old weeds will you pull away?
To reveal the hope of a brand new day.
What new seeds will you sow?

For, this is your chance to grow.

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My life has been a lesson in detachment.
Tiny moments of consistent loss,
Have stacked up over the years.
I used to hold on so tightly
To anything that would come my way,
Only to watch it shrivel
And die into decay.

Shoulders shaking,
I’d bitterly mourn its absence.
Unwittingly having crumpled it in my fist.
Trying too hard,
Working too much,
Doing anything and everything to make it stick.

And yet, it always came unstuck.

Just my luck, or just my lesson?
With each failed fiasco and frustration,
I noticed something.
The successes I had come by
Were not clouded by the opaque fug of desperation,
But, supported by a light-hearted indifference.
Calm and breezy.
An inner knowing,
Unfettered by the burden of ego and expectation.

This was it.
The answer I had been waiting on.
Telling me to let go, and so I did.
No longer tied to people, places, or possessions,
I sought my satisfaction from my own creation.

Not forcing, but flowing with the tides of life.

And with my mind now at peace,
I gently glow like the soft summer sun.
Warm enough for bare arms and legs,
Yet cool enough to catch your breath.
No-one’s going to get burned to death,
Clutching at the straws of a fruitless test,
Wasting their precious time.

Fully reshuffled and revitalised,
I am a new person operating with a different system.
Once physically stuck yet mentally free,
You would think my detachment would leave me lonely.
But now my world is adjusting accordingly,
Bringing with it, new people, places, and opportunities…

The ones I’d always hoped to see.

You catch me in a moment,
On the precipice of change.
Stretching out my wings
That I have kept firmly folded for far too long.
I am ready to fly.

Goodbye!

By Sylvia Villa (2024)

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