Traveling North

I’m on a train heading north

The sun steps to the edge of the horizon

And bows

The curtain of night falls silently on the day’s stage

But the show’s not over

Just a practice run

I want to watch the sun together

Hold it there and be with you, ok?

When the world grows quiet and dark for the last time.

When I Die….

When the time has come to set this wondrous, painful, whip-fast life a-drift
The memory of you in me always
To venture forth like someone blind with adventure
With a longing I can’t explain
When I’ve had what time I need
Afraid of nothing, the greatest fears of all behind me now
I hope to assure you: there’s nothing to fear aside from apathy

Those anxieties about letting go
The worry…what will they think?
Fear of failure
That frightening thought of loving you too much

All gone
All regrets
All guilt and shame erased

Scatter my memory along the Brooklyn streets where I once played as a child
On the Shawangunk trails, the waterfalls and lakes of my four years away from the world
In the Gulf Stream’s current flowing north between Key West and Mariel
On the sands of ar-Rub’ al Khali where I was so so small in the hands of the world

In all of these and in you my wife and child and friends
I found my muse

Traveling North

I ride north as the earth turns and the sun bows for the last time
I applaud its brilliance with my eyes
And I await the darkness

We’ve parted again; just another practice run for going north

I want to watch the sun together
I want to hold it there, and be with you, ok?
When the sky grows quiet, then dim, and dark for the last time

In Another Land

I sit at your desk
I look at the photographs you have pinned up
I look at the titles of the books on your shelves
I find you
Again

I walk toward the sea
I look at the sandals and flip-flops left waiting
I look at the sand where you once walked
I see you
Again