This short reflection is four years old, already. But that season of the year has rolled round once more, and I’ve always liked the way this one turned out…
still this number
for a couple more hours
last thursday this valley was drowsy
a comforting dimming
of external awareness
colors muted but much lovelier
seeping one into another
the illusion of sharp outlines
revealed to closer seeing
in the eternal noiseless drizzle
Angela used to say
go walking in this weather
its so good for your skin
and god her face was beautiful
how the pink deepens
just now in the west
when I think on her soul
beyond the sunveil of her body
my brother crossed the boundary
his last respiration
somewhere in Florida
now the horizon nearly scarlet
while I scan through all our trespasses
that which he found funny
and that which stoked his fear
and those which I imagined
how in childhood he seemed transparent
only to blossom enigmatic
and how could it be
poor Denis received a treefall
on the selfsame landscape
he tended cherishing for decades
even unto his ninth one
still we made duets
on fiddles aged but soulful
how I marvelled sometimes
the way our hearing
outsummed our solo listening
unlocking a brief impossibility
hid inside a 17th century melody
no more this life my friend
he was once a CEO
but I knew him
blessed, in his carefree dusk
the sprawling spruce perceives me
this not quite melancholy evening
its arms reaching the far banks
standing sentry at river’s bend
it sways with animate teasing
in the collaborating breeze
while a deep carmine strip
of final day’s shine
designates the transition
between treeline and horizon
at the extreme rim of my knowing
and it smiles into me something
gesturing a comradery
and a wish or maybe warning
this new year take serious
your intuitions and boldly shed
that lizard skin you thought so personal
let your kindness be your courage
let your presence be your map
locate your identity
where it should be
in the ones you live to help
_______RS
[ Image : moi ; Autumn dusk and the rivière à Simon in the Quebec Laurentides. ]
► Handy INDEX — scan through all available ||SWR|| articles
||skirmishes|| ||with|| ||reality|| 
lovely piece! I never thought of you wearing a lizard skin but kindness and presence are evident always, and courage is something that has carried you far, i’ve no doubt. — I’m sorry to hear you lost your brother. It becomes more personal even if we aren’t close to our siblings that we just might be next to get the call to return home.
well, let me see what I meant by this stretchy metaphor… I think the idea is how lizard skin peels off when no longer relevant, like a snakeskin, and people tend to treat their swirling emotions as something so vital to their identity when it really is not so at all. They peel away revealed as nothing. And for my brother, thanks, but truly of the three souls mentioned, reflected upon, he was the one least difficult to “lose”.
oh geez, how does one become irrelevant by shedding old emotions? did i get that right? — I dont know whether to laugh about ur brother or applaud your loss. 🙂 Wish i could lose a few kin myself…
No, silly! That’s not what I said. The person doesn’t become irrelevant; the emotions do. And we already discussed brother situation, but tyou forgot. You are more attached to relatives than I am. So you naturally chose him as the one to express consolations about, but for me the other two losses were more intimate.
is this the second time u write of deceased brother oh darn; sorry, i guess it’s not important to retain since he wasnt important. 🙂
no problem 🙂 You are wrong that he wasn’t important though.
it’s wonderfully nice that you have the ability to transform your musings into literary art pieces. thank you for sharing them. — When i want to transfer my musings onto paper, i wind up with nothing but curses and rage-filled animus — that nobody would enjoy reading.
well you never know… maybe you should try posting some animus 🙂