there you go again
acting out as on a stage
your endless pantomime
of all the faces you've seen
on others
do you know who you are?
or are you content with being
just a series of impressions
of your impressions
of other people?

Eternity speaks
will not be silenced
by shatter of glass nor falling rain

Eternity sees
will not be blinded
by flash of light nor midnight blackness

Eternity hears
will not be deafened
by screech of tire nor mourning's cry

Each fading pulse drops as rain on Eternity's Ear

Eternity waits
as I continue by
driving on to life undeserved

Eternity listens
to my stolen beats of heart
and borrowed years

while there, in that timeless place,
for two hearts now silent
Eternity sings

In childhood days
we thought we could remain
forever youthful and vibrant
that we would stay the same

Summer evenings
lingered longer then
as we chased through the wood
our golden-fire friends

Never did we dream
of farewells or goodbyes
our futures vast and open
as summer starry skies

Autumn came and
stole away those nights
our ageless innocence dissipating
as misty clouds from sight

No longer would we share
a child's purity of view
summer left us and with her
our memories of youth

To where do they go, our memories
of times together framed,
of moments past so long forgotten
when we were still the same?

What turn did you take?
Where did your step go astray
that led you down a path so far
from simple summer days?

Yet you found the way to remain,
frozen as winter's crystal breath,
timeless now and infinite
your youth cloaked in death.

Another autumn night drifts by
years adding onto mine
while you, in the vastness of the sky,
awake an ageless twenty-nine.

A name I cannot speak
a scottish graveled path
phantom like rises
in misty memory
of a memory never lived
only in heart, in possibilities
signed away upon an altar
To bury you -
never born nor even borne
leaving a hollowness
where you could have been -
in soil though fertile
never to nourish the seedling
of you of me
which I signed away upon an altar
dying this deathless death
parts of me, facets
shimmering through
an open window like
being a bearer
of one whose name I cannot speak
the graveled scottish path
winding round a splintered heart
under which you never nestled
under which the fruit
of you never hung
down heavy low
yet I know the weight of you
I feel them all
these touches of you
who never was
whose name I cannot speak
my scottish graveled path
whom I signed away upon an altar

it was not a slamming
but a steady slow
easing closed
the door

quick catch of breath -
not as much as
a deeply drunk
savored gasp

like after a race
hands on thighs bent
******* in air
too quick

until remembered
to take is slow
and pull in that first deep
balmy breath

to take it slow speaks
of patience and of time
less filled with doubt
or regret

take comfort then
I took my time to measure out
feel the weight in my hand
of waiting

of giving you time to
slow down turn around
and see that the door
was closing

I waited there threshold shrinking
pleading silent looks for you
to stop before it shut
and died

but eyes are not accustomed
to look for or perceive
the colors of pain painted
in another

or to catch the dying glimmer
through the cracks of a heart breaking
as it eases closed
the door