Words, music


(XVII)

Drift, with me

in the mist forgetting rain

In the chamber between lives

Golden walls, all grass and ocean air

Where, we are older than the stones

Where, more hollow than these bones

 

to come away from life

Passing in and out 

of time upon the sand

Where the waves

Never stop.

Where time trickles out

And leaves us there.


(XVII)

Drift, with me

in the mist forgetting rain

In the chamber between lives

Golden walls, all grass and ocean air

Where, we are older than the stones

Where, more hollow than these bones

 

to come away from life

Passing in and out 

of time upon the sand

Where the waves

Never stop.

Where time trickles out

And leaves us there.


Winter Light

(in four movements)

Part I

Winter light

Fills beneath the ground

We are somewhere above

looking down /

white slivers break through cracks in the earth

 

But hazy eyes of ours

Forget the friends 

our hearts still recognize

And though we wish to land

Still we float higher.

Toward some watery plane

Where far off voices

Call us on

Using names we

haven't learned.


Part II

So drifting takes us

And voices deafen us

Until even our own heartbeat

we cannot hear

 

We feel our feet in sand

Sinking slowly

But we do not struggle

For fear we would only sink faster

Blue waves come

Bringing treasure and trash

 

Time spins around us

Looking out from the center 

of an accelerating clock

slipping into the deep

toward hospital sleep.


Part III

Nearing the pit

We look for a key

And then swallow it.

 

The sinking stops

The voices die

Our sandpaper coffin

Dissolves on our skin

We look with new eyes

With light in our eyes

And see other lights

that shine on the shore

 

And we fully forget

Whatever trapped us before

Shaking the dust we rise from the grave

From here it seems clear

There was not a thing to save

 

Under the ground, winter light

is flowing in streams

Life is simple

Our friends are here

 


Part IV

 

But seasons change

and in winter a storm

rushes over the vastness

to strip you from clothes

 

To see what you are

Without lucky stars