A poet through open doors

Lament of a Landscape

I walked with you in a landscape

The sky was black and you didn’t notice

Being young

Remember finding crawfish on the golf course

Remember walking slow,

Walking fast

Do you remember when walking

Was the hardest task

I walked with you in a garden

It was beautiful

And we ate plums

When other fruits were soured

And we would plant the seeds

And count the flowers

And we would never look over the fence

Only for turtles and the snakes

and the hidden places they went

Your smile would light my day

And calm the storm

I promised I’d keep you safe

And free from harm

And now you run on cliffs,

I have since lost my step

And I can barely throw rocks to a mocking tide

Or fathom where your journey went

I stand on a crossroad

Watching the flowers unkempt

And the plums never sweeten enough

Time insists it will give you back

But time I will never trust

So I stand across this landscape

The sky was once so blue

Can’t we lay in the grass for a while

And talk about the stars

And the sky

I promised I’d  keep you safe

I promised I wouldn’t cause harm

But I can’t reach your precarious perch

Or fathom where you are…. 

On Dying and Nature

We keep the body in a steel box

Keep it safe

Hanging on to its limbs

As the universe sighs

Keep our fingers in the soil

And the doves are the only things that fly

We keep ourselves

Clinging to the rotting ground

What a sad way to die…

Instead the cocoon

Its skin releases the beautiful wings

No stone to keep a place

We have stars and beautiful things

The universe breathes deep

Keeps us

Open and alive

Leave the weight of flesh and bone

Behind

The vice of science

Insists

That the heart must keep its time

And the universe replies

Out across the distance of everlasting sky

Leave the ash and all the weight of the body

Behind

Peace, freedom out through an open violent sky

What a beautiful

Sacred way to die.