INCIDENTS IN MY LIFE I WITHDREW FROM
NOW
RECOLLECTED IN TRANQUILLITY

This poem is written with apprecation to Bruce Dawe for his poem with a similar title in Mortal Instruments: Poems 1990-1995, p.112.

Knowing when to quit is half the battle,
for some wars you are going to lose;
unless you like to fight these losing contests,
pulling the plug is what you must choose.

The time I worked in that grocery store
and had that boss I could not understand;
the game was over from the start;
I did not have the tools at my command.

Then there was the time at uni,
so overwhelmed by all those books.
Depression added flames to that fire;
so beaten was I by their terrifying looks.

Then, again, there was that first marriage,
that job in Tasmania I thought would be a rest,
that passion I had for Chris Armstrong
and those bosses up in the north and west.

They all seemed, in one way or another,
loses from which I just had to retire.
But as I look back I can see a victory,
buried underneath that steel and fire.

Ron Price 15 October 1999