short poem/long poem

Apr 14, 2008 - 02:19 AM PST

Short poem:

It is in such brief moments
that we come to realize
a lifetime of loneliness

Long poem:

I found myself sitting upon creaking steps
overlooking a wooded field
behind me the timber construct
no longer a concert hall
of laughter and familial triumph

That star hides behind fat clouds
I lean back in large shadows and
gaze upward
my eyes do not burn
but I close them to deflate
let out air that floats and dissipates
scatters about into countless atoms
spreading across land and country
until all that was in me
is now entirely around and among
everthing else

My lungs do not remember
and I melt between the cracks
of creaking steps
but the dirt and the stones resist me
I flow across gravel
and dandelions and hydrangeas
until man-made becomes the past
and I slither between sweet reeds
with milky dew left over from
cold mornings

Past the dead trees with hanging ropes
I have no arms to swing
nor joy for it
as it is my brethren I seek
wind tossed maybe
but beneath a calm repose
from the land that won’t let me seep
I make for the quiet pond
forgotten by proud oceans
and content with waiting
for wayward puddles
to join the place of murk and weeds

And so it comes
my new life in liquid
I’ve reached the thicker green
the first step
the only step
for one drop of me
is enough
to spread across the bottom
and tickle the sides all at once
breaking for the top
while sinking fast
light and dark fade into blue
and I am the shallow
hiding insects and plants
and I am the deep
hiding flat rocks
that we skipped happily
across my surface
gliding in the breeze
that chops my tranquil station

I came to feed the fields
and fall on the grasses
to waft away in a mist
that clings to windows
and drips from leaves
in a slow, melancholy percussion
I came to grow the immature
pith of fruit picked in earnest
by innocent children
wandering through new kingdoms
of planted mystery
I came only to return to the world
of spinning revolutions and tides
managed by the moon reflected
atop the black plane of my body
now in constant motion