Sometimes

Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail.
Sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best intentions do not go
amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen; may it happen for you.

Sheenagh Pugh

And breathe again. We've all been holding our breath. Been unclear whether there would be violence at the release of the election results. There was an uneasy wait of four plus days of counting. The official audited results weren't released at 9am, nor at 11am as the invited VIPs had been told but not till 2pm - and you can hear the groans of even the great and the good on the tv feed, as they get yet another song from the choir not the results. And yes the results are disputed, some ballot boxes went astray and there is a court case pending.

But the results were received in patience and without violence. As happens in democracies, almost half the country voted the other way. But people have gone back to work. 'A people sometimes will step back from war'. Maybe others never thought violence, widespread unrest, was on the cards. But for me, where I was sitting, I didn't know.  And so for me, those who were disappointed handling disappointment without violence, this is a great gift to be celebrated.  Thanks Sheenagh Pugh, love your poem.