the water clear
escapes the touch

and falls

I can hear you picking
up the keys
the bass chords
the pedal shifts

Love is a mystery
fraught with the ruin of
leaving
Just when the echo of
Hello has opened
the frame
of possible
hope

a piano lives
a soul walks
the hallway

these ghosts of us

gusts reach walls
we built
the stones of
work like bones
sleeping

this warmth gathered
curved against it

Intangible, soft colours gently drift
in streams of many tones, across the void -
creation's water's vibrant, bejewelled gift
there for my humble eyes, to be enjoyed

But truly too far distant to behold
for vision that's contained by time, confined
to me its symmetry will yet unfold
when my soul-self, again, is re-defined

I'll leave behind this dirt I've worn and trod
exchange it then for light of fiery essence
and be set loose to wander throughout god
in galleons of lustrous luminescence

Her innosence gone, prematurely
she's like a full-grown, glistening pearl;
a flawless unit of nature
not to mention, "daddy's girl";

imprisoned, and surrounded by
the thought that it "feels", wrong;
told, "not to yell", and "not to cry"....
because he wants her to be...strong.

An extremely trusting child
childishly placing trust;
on her shoulders, guilt is piled
as she hits the streets, or bust.

They've taken up the railroad track
that joined together all these places
and they'll likely never be laid back.
All that's left are gravelly traces.

Iva, Starr and Lowndesville too,
small southern towns along the line,
(and many more I never knew)
left to wither with no vine.

Mere remnants of those byegone days
when textile mills were going strong
where looms echoed through the summer haze
a background beat to dryflies' song.