Fifty White Stones
blue sky blends
into somber fog,
a soon-darkness
that will drop the ground
a little lower
and if i am to be translated
like this winged she creature,
she of bending back and black
wings, if i am ever to be
as permanent, let it be here
in this northern field
where i have stopped
among fifty white stones, long & flat;
being here is less like surrender
fifty years will do this to a person looking
for signs, looking for any reason that having been
can be as lasting
* * * * *
Deciduous
we heal, simply, others,
like leaves resting next to a bare tree stripped
naked by seasons, naked like we all are
at birth
workmen took rest here, next
to this tree, a hundred years ago;
their sweat still lingers in the air.
Down-river the bridge they built
still stands. the same names carved
in its railings as in their granite headstones
*
we heal, simply, our children,
like some kind of morality play. We
put leaves, like tiny boats, into cold water,
watch in mystery as they float away
like so many emigrants
*
we heal, simply, ourselves,
and in the silence near our death, we hear
our own hearts beating
as quietly as falling leaves
~ Tim J Brennan is from southeastern Minnesota. His poetry has appeared in The Elegant Thorn Review, Shampoo, The Rose and the Thorn, Main Channel Voices, The Green Blade, and is forthcoming in River Walk Journal. He is frequent contributer here.
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