A Stone Wall

There is a void in the air
An empty pocket
In which nothing stirs
Neither dust nor debris.

Shadows enter
But do not exit
Sound is muted
Everything stills to nothing.

The emptiness
Has your form
And hovers about me
Everywhere I go.

I utter words
But they bounce back
As though opposed
By a stone wall.

How cold, this emptiness!
My breath rises in vapor
My flesh chills and blues
In its presence.

Nobody sees it but me.
It is palpable
Presses me
Is always there.

It is an unblinking stare
Like snow blindness
A piercing gaze
Seeing beyond my soul.

It took your place the instant
You left
And will remain
Until you return.

Event Horizon

I remember
Your eyes
Searching mine
The passing of an
Unseen marker
That signified the changing
Of everything.

My chest
Is still warm
Flushed
Where your open palm
Tattooed my heart.

I remember
The softness
Of your lips
The desire
In your kiss.

I remember
Insistent hands
Welcome me
Your body
Responding to mine.

We pledged our love
Planting our lives
Each in the soil
Of the other.

I remember
Your breath moist
Against my throat
Your sigh soft
In my ears.

Your relentless desire
Stays with me still
Your laughing joy
Searching gaze.

I know you
The way men know
The geography of frontiers
Astronomers the vastness
Of star systems
I know you
The way hawks know
Grasslands
The way sailors know
Seas
Priests know
The Host.

I know you.

Do not mistake me.

You are not
A treasured experience
Thrilling memory
Or turning point
In my life.

No, my love.

You are the
Event Horizon.
The only one
In my life.

Clutter

It’s hard to find me
In the clutter.

Look carefully
At what I do
And yearn to do.

But that is not me.

Search for me
In my poetry and prose
But all you’ll map is
The imprint of my soul.

I am not my
Logic
Or IQ.

Not in my laughter
Smile
Or tears.

Not in my speech
Heartbeat
Or fears.

I am undiscovered in
Physical or
Emotional
Wounds.

I am not merely flesh
Nor spirit.

I am not whole in my thoughts
Nor complete in my expressions.

You cannot fully know me
By those who love
Or fear me.

All this is
Clutter.

I know this
To be true…

Because I’ve been
In the hunt
All my life.

Will You Sing For Me?

Will you sing for me?

Let the wind
Sift your hair
The fair sun
Warm your shoulders
Around which
I draped my arms
On days innocent
And new.

Will you sing?

Waters warm and fresh
Bathed us
In earthen pools
Cleansed us
Held us
As the womb holds life
Birthing
Hope for what might be.

But will you sing?

Fire lit our loving
Warmed us
Twined into the other
Its crackle masking
Our joy
In yellow-amber shadows
Dancing
Decorating the walls around.

Won’t you sing?

My breath is yet in my throat
Heart in mid-beat
Fingers half-closed
Eyes half-opened
Waiting
Waiting…

For your song.

Waiting Patiently

There’s a plot of land
Somewhere
Just three feet wide
Seven long
Six deep
Waiting to embrace me.

Populated by weeds
And earthworms
The loam is damp
And cold
Black as eternal night
Firm as the hope of heaven.

Let it be on a hill
Looking over a river
Within the call
Of a coal train
Beneath the patrol
Of a brown hawk.

Let it be near
Leaning stones
Marking the bones
Of those
Who went before
Able to point the way.

Let the wind sigh above me
That I might mistake it
For grieving moans
For the wail
Of a lover’s lonesome
Call.

It’s been waiting for me
Patiently.
Knows I am coming
Slowly, reluctantly
But surely
Moving into its grasp.

Jackson

I remember Jackson.

The bitter
Long goodbye
That look
In your eye
When you
Promised what was
Beyond your power
To give.

How could you love me
Yet betray me
As easily
As a butcher
Dispatches a calf?

I hardly expected a
Judas kiss
To taste of salt and lime.

I remember Jackson.

The heat on my shoulders
Grit under my boots
Sweat streaming my eyes
The dull ache
Beneath my sternum
The way you turned your face from me
When I drove the question into you
The way a man drives a fence post
Into clay
Into your eyes
“Did you?”

It took time to hate you.

But it began
There
The ignition sparked the fury
There.

Oh, yes…
I remember Jackson.