This autumn day’s spacious wrapping —
an airy nest of wide reaching branches,
a lookout for viewing the beautiful
procession of death.
Who will be the first to go?
The elder, leaves barely holding on
soon to be a skeleton of itself?
The burning bush bleeds a
puddle of scarlet,
The Dogwood flushed in viewing.
Each takes its turn in this mild
tenuous instant between
the severities to come.
Then the tender breeze …
The torch of Maximillian sunflowers
dims, electric blue statice prostrates,
while lumens of redbud leaves
drop as fallen stars.
This place, this day and I are lovers,
engaged in a last glance.
Friend,
what if your pain
was a gathering place
for the too many
sorry events of your life,
of unwanted memories,
all pressed together,
held in an airless train,
stopped dead on its tracks,
mouth gagged.
with no water or bread,
forced into silence —
walled in, ignored
and abandoned?
Go there,
break through
the barricade!
Find the sorrow
of this petrified place
and take its hand,
move it gently,
offer support
to its naked bones.
Moisten the fused dry lips
with thawing tears
Ask what is hiding there?
Kindly coax the secret dread
Place yourself at its service
in the hollow of its mouth
place fresh fruit
give it time to chew.
Then
walk it through
the broken wall into the open air.
Be patient – it may move slowly.
Now see thru its eyes –
a new world.
It may stare out in wonder,
smile, laugh, or cry.
Don’t drop its bony hand,
put it to your cheek
and ask yourself,
Is this what I was afraid of?
I’ll be an ancient lady
my mind stardust in space
I’ll wander far beyond the unknown
where forgetting has its place
and fear is dropped like an underskirt
released in the naked night
I’ll soar and visit formless friends –
we’ll know each other’s light.
Can our hearts be large enough oceans to hold
the love that comes from the sky?
Can we bear its serenity – flooding us with stillness
in its free embrace?
Can we envision all that has been extinguished, stirred
and newly lit up into luminous blue?
Can we, even if briefly, dwell in this in-between place –
where life dust mingles in its twilight of matter?
Can we imagine its boundless province to forever be in the
background as worlds spin and unravel their stories
again and again?
Can we fathom its azure veil of protection
shielding us from the unendurable face of God?
