The Crisis of Two

 

The Crisis of Two by Malachi Doyle

 

“I swore I’d make her happy every day…

but now I make her cry…

Two faces have I” – (Bruce Springsteen)

 

I try so hard to be a good & righteous man

but I have a Shadow which fractures the peace

 

I get impatient when people half listen or interrupt

So I never get through the story

 

& so they: “quickly”

& so I blurt it out

without its many colours & shades

& BANG

I made a blind man cry.

 

I did follow up after him

& asked him if he wanted a hug

 

So we hugged

But the damage was done

 

It’s meant to be Christmas for god’s sake!

mine/our orphans’ Christmas

 

They don’t know each day I cry

in grief & trauma –

I’m a bull in a china shop

 

So I will no longer tell you the story of the Gordian Knot…

 

There is no shorthand

 

That is the point!

 

Because that’s the curse on mankind:

 

“May you always be rushing!”

 

I will not rush.

 

If people WANT TO KNOW

 

They’ll have to read my poem

Because that does it a lot better

than the off the cuff shorthand

after beers & spliff

when really they don’t wanna know,

 

They just wanna gossip/make small talk

 

They don’t want me there

So the best I can do is leave them

& perhaps our paths will cross again

in happier times…

 

 

My shadow, I don’t really know.

For all the love in my heart

 

In the metropolis

It’s hard to see

 

But how will I know him/her/them

 

When the light source

is many small electric globes?

 

 

(Christmas Eve ’25, Naarm/Melbourne)

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2026