Learning to Lose

A light filled room

Linen sheets on a single bed

Oak tree coming into leaf

Cathedral rising and April’s first sun

Life stretching out in front of me

A cat about to leap

Free fall

Claws out.

Thinking backwards:

What has been hibernating

In the winters of my mind?

Will it come forward now into

Yawning emptiness

What does it look like?

Me, of course.

Stepping stones on a river bed

One after the other

Quick short steps

A final leap

Landing on the moon

The path dissolves behind me

Stars blinking back

Morning sun again,

Please.

Now only an open sky

Of constellations

Branching into space.

Wading through

Phosphorescent memory

Light catching on grey streaked hair

Evening quietly approaching

Days well spent

You and I.

Tears fall

Drench my cheeks

Time, as they promised

Is a thief.

Montage and mirage flicker

Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve

Oh!

I loved you then.

When we were little,

Still had time.

Gone now. Somewhere else.

Behind.

Here again. Thudding heart. No gravity.

One step forward.

Sand dollar in my palm

Ancient currency, lost now.

Grief come home to roost

Different feathers

Circling dreams, wings outstretched.

Dappled sun through new leaves.

Laughter echoes.

Kaleidoscope.

Flies trapped between panes of glass

One way out -

Fracture.