A Fly has a way of Seeing
By Annette Towler
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There are moments in my daily job, when I wish you were a fly on the wall

The proverbial buzz that stays still for a moment and soaks it all in

All the stories and the looks and the giggles that pass between therapist and client

Anger, sadness, joy and jest swirl around the room as the fly pauses and listens

To try and understand the complexity of the human condition.

The fly has the brain of Euclid, deciphering and working through all the problems of

Rich folks, poor intellectuals who inhabit the clinician’s walls and mind

Then there is the heart of the fly, pulsating and pounding to all the tales of

Broken hearts, lonely souls, ecstatic passion and soulful dirge that

Haunt the cracks of the walls and the creaks of the floor

The fly wants to wipe away the tears of those who crack and fold.

If you and I were flies on the wall, I would step outside myself and look at the stories

With less of a heart, with the rational mind of the fly who just wishes to buzz through the sky

Yet, the fly has a way of seeing that opens the wise, old mind

The soulful buzz of the fly on the wall.

Annette Towler was born in England and moved to the United States in the early 1990s. I enjoy my job as a therapist and in my spare time I like to run. I live in an old house in Milwaukee and have a sweet cat called Marsha. I have written romance and mystery novels and poetry chapbooks.