Category: Poetry

weary, I crawled back
to an old familiar place
after a long and laborious journey,
but the doors were locked
and the windows were all broken.
rafters and beams were all out of
whack, and the structural integrity
was gone.

barefooted, I walked on shards
of glass, searching for something,
anything that resembled what I’d
once built with my own hands.
one tiny shelf remained in-tact,
and on that dusty shelf was a
little wooden heart-shaped box.

the contents of the box were simple:
honesty, love, peace, dignity, respect.
I stuffed the contents into my pockets
and walked away from that broken
house, leaving bloody footprints
in my wake. the soft moon rose
and the raven gently called me
home.

why do you worry so much
about this and that and the other thing?
everything is temporary.
everything you see will one day
be gone: the birds, the houses,
the cars, the trees, everything.

why do you try to change that which
is unchangeable? everything is
temporary: your work, your play,
your creation, the heart that only
beats for so long, until it stops,
and then for what will riches matter?

listen to the wind and the waves,
the old mighty ones, older than all
who might dare to die to themselves
before death takes them by force.
why do you worry so much
about this and that? everything is
temporary and set upon its course.

and so the new begins as withered feathers
decompose, and the pigeon’s spirit flies into
the late august moon.

and so the new begins while the mutant raven
sleeps, branches reaching down to blanket her,
so cold and flightless.

and so the new begins as death knocks
gently, waiting, their souls revive at midnight
for an old-fashioned rendezvous
to celebrate all that is to come.

“come with me, my love,” says the pigeon
to the raven, “to where the trees have all
been burned by fire.”

and so they fly in ghostly form to the ashes
of the resurrection grounds, all their feathers
bright and intermingled.

and so the new begins as life’s relentlessness
shines down from from a cool September sky,
the moon and stars singing ancient hymns
of praise for all that is to come.