the precipice

journeys to the precipice
have become familiar to me.
i have mapped every avenue 
to the edge
to the raw 
unwavering light
beyond what we know
the very brink of
beginning and end.

i go there
and come home again.

i accompany souls
but i return alone.
it is a terribly good endeavor
that blesses 
those with whom i walk
but bleeds me 
time and again.

i sit in silence
when comes the urgency
to go to the border 
one more time.

teach me how to die
she said
more a command
than request.
for a little less
than a year
i taught her all i know.
then she departed
and i waited for
the inevitable other
and the renewal of the teaching time.

they come endlessly
some with pain in their eyes
others come maimed, scarred
disabled
and desperate.
i abide daily with these. 

but this truth i have not disclosed...

every journey to the border
leaves me the less
until my time comes
and i also
do not return
on the morning of the good
pure
and loving 
Light.