Cleft

Give me the bulky pram in the hallway,
the bland dinner plate, the washing up;
give me the shopping list and laundry,
the bedtime yawn, the weekly shop.

But O for glimpses, obstacles to climb,
impossibilities at some trembling start;
that first remote connection out of time,
that hint of the essential human heart.

Give me memos nine-to-five;
give me data, quotients and aggregates;
reality may keep us half alive
but unreality seals our fates.