Best Laid

  

“We must give up the life we had planned so as to embrace the life that is waiting for us.”

- Joseph Campbell

“This night is frigid, relief

long overdue; all the stones
of the planets are turning to
you and all gentle and ochre-pink;
…sinking in sandstone
if only to think
about moons and deserts and
the skies overhead,
as I crawl beneath the blankets
of lonely reed beds of seaweed
and stars above clay…
that sinks fast enough;
just;
to draw you away from my reach
when I stretch out my fingers
and suddenly know
that I long to linger here
among birth-light and
moments renewed
to be ever warmer and
nearer to dew…and grass
and to morning’s sweet haze,
that evens union with life;
a dirty-glass gaze; and the want
to buckle…or fold…and fill beautiful days
with sapphire and gold that holds only
my tightly locked doors…

If I lay down and ask you

for soul-aching more…can you say
how far you would go?”

“Darling, I need not even
follow…leave no breadcrumbs,
no trail of deceit…
for what has never had
a head; can surely never have
feet to walk on, on transitory
sand; no art, no substance
on which to stand; only
heart, and feeling;
sacred, older things…
bleeding until
we could staunch the sting of past
and hold it all
down and back
with all angels and empty dunes…

Elves (and I) will always reside

under the very same
sky as you; granting wishes
that often ring true; but promising
this,
and this alone: whatever
was planned we were meant to let
go; to free us now,
to tomorrow’s hold and the evergreen sprites,
for who are we to kick and fight against
more noble schemes;
in honour of something
so small
and stunted
as chasing lost
and unintended
dreams?”