I’LL BE RIGHT HERE

A hot plate of food
and laughter around the table—
all that’s gone now.
The dream doesn’t change:
on the outside for some, on the inside
for others.

Out in the boat, hoping for sleep, looking for mercy,
I am at the core of my life.
The water is cold and black,
and there’s nowhere left to run—
I miss my friend.

The higher I drift above marshland, the farther
I can fall. The feeling of earth in our hands
is a distant memory,
another mile with every year.

But a voice seldom heard, just one pop,
glimpses us Paradise—
we lived there once.

(February 10, 2010)