We were driving

On our trip of dreams

And I saw cliff face

Along the road side

Pouring water

Like blood from sheer rock;

Cut him in half,

Blast him to pieces,

He’s merely a path

To get to your destination

A thing to be forgot

From the comfort of bed

Far off at day’s end

This bleeding rock

That hints at a heart

Buried behind the boulders

Loon is like truth

Riding low upon the surface

Black head barely visible

Until suddenly, it is gone

Hiding beneath the waves

Running away in secret

To rise up somewhere new

Never to be caught

Only to be hinted at

Far off in our peripheral

It is morning

And they are still asleep

While I dive in to the lake

To wash away the night

As a train rolls past

Teaching me that things come

Teaching me that things go

There is beginning

There is end

But I will live in the middle

Sun sets as fire

Being quenched in the lake

To rise again as the silver moon

Amidst the echoes of laughter

Trapped in the air

From a day filled with warmth

.

One small dot

Just a little thing

An ‘E’ in Morse

Cry into the dark

Echo

Empty

Endless

E

One small dot

Punctuation

Finishing a sentence

Finishing a paragraph

Finishing a novel

Finishing

.

My heart beats so heavily

I am rocked to sleep

Like a ship on the ocean

But the waves are within

Soft earthquakes never ceasing

As my mantle shifts

As my existence drifts

Off and away

I owned a cat once

Charlie the grey and black tabby;

And I loved that thing so much

Languidly lounging in the sun

Or hiding as lion in the grass,

I wanted him to live forever…

Then dog came loping into our lives

Big dope chasing balls

Nuzzling affection like some

Love-starved, bone chewing moron

Until I forgot cat ever existed

And no longer remember

If he ran away or simply died;

What was his name again?

Memory is history

Empty as Napoleon

Just words on a page

Trying to convince us

That there once was something,

Some world that came before

Memory is useless

Like a man dying of thirst

Who drank his fill last year

Hoping the mere thought

Will keep him alive until rain

Memory is lost

A sterile mythology.

There is only now

Or nothing at all.

This dog kept coming round

All because I gave him a bone

On a day long passed…

But I have learned

Don’t look at him with love,

Don’t speak his name with warmth,

Don’t touch or talk, don’t call or shelter

And he will wonder if he even exists

And fade away to the background

That I might forget he ever was

And be happy again

A touch is eternity

To the isolated child

Raised numb by the wind

Away from all embrace;

He’s a motherless madman

Wondering why he ever was

Waiting for the dark