And what if?
What if the lingering taste –
The persimmon breath dissipates
Like ghostly phantoms in the fog

What if I miss the faces I never really knew
Like flowers that grew – and in years of solitude
Rose up wildly from the soil into mountain-scapes
As if distance had grown fondness from idle thoughts

Perhaps I’m too old to question now,
And the romantic notions have been forgotten
While my back was turned on to other stations
Other unimportant devices - devilish disingenuousness

Maybe the garden is all dried up leathery ugliness
Autumn leaves in spring – like half-truths in the gullet
Still lies, darkened by prejudices insufferable blindness
And tolerance bled dry to its husk, its formless fashion

Are they still there? Still struggling – contemplating oblivion
Insinuating their souls through vanity like vipers
Or rustling up the courage to soar farther than ever before
Into the air effortlessly and beyond my imaginations reach

I hope for either, for a movement, rather than this constancy
This stagnant disembodied underscore of impatience
I do miss, so often, the rain on my face and shuddering shoulders
And definite figures figuratively speaking

Their quiet words of wisdom
As sharp and stinging as nettles
Captivating as waking up to a cool breeze
And forgotten like a first kiss – but always

Just always…

But these questions – denial-ridden doubts are smoke
Spreading thick across the weathered crenulations
To blind eyes that once could see so easily
And choke men who steadfast stood their years

It’s far too late to remiss your friendly company
Moments of clarity dwell within the memories
Of times she swam like a mermaid in my mind –
All delicate lithe movements and flashing eyes

Of times we spent in vociferous thought
And dancing words like ballet across virgin fields
Imaginative interludes softly described
With impenetrable insight

The surreal nature of dullard reality
Suffers me to surrender for the face of
Absolute incomprehensible beauty
And what kind of pitiful choice is that?

“If you are conscious of beauty within, remember”

Remember us, like droplets at dawn
As a sunrise and a sunset
In a world gone mad with terror
Remember us, as we recall you

Beautiful…always…