The One - Song Twelve - Third Movement: Remembering - Song 12: Memorial Day - Segment II

THIRD MOVEMENT

REMEMBERING

SONG TWELVE

MEMORIAL DAY

II

Walking farther North, leaving even trees behind

no arching limbs against this white-empty sky

the sun rises above the horizon but a few hours

then sinks into night again

into deep cold that rakes the flesh like fire

Here’s a long night to be sure – an endless night

with no time yet for sleep

I watch shards of ice rise to the dark surface

of a winter lake fed by an underground river

that flows below mountain peaks crushed silver under moon

Walking by myself, I listen to the stories I have left behind

good stories that I tell myself – the ones I’ve never told another –

not even once – good stories that I am re-membering

about the One who has always been here,

the un-named One -- now  named

Here, walking in this longest night, I cannot tell

if the stars are lights above me

or fires below

I am ice-cracking splinters into shards

and I am jubilant in the breaking

Mapping to the center

dead-reckoning where no magnet leads

my infallible compass points its certain finger

and I throw my head back laughing crazy

wind streaking ice silvers from my hair

Beginning to re-member

sails unfurling with no seas near

I begin to hear

the gusts rise within

as I look up to stars and begin again

Setting course by these stars

I walk deeper into North 

on course now and no more wandering

navigating by my radiant compass

I am a point on unmarked road

Beginning to re-member

I become unkillable

resilient as sea waves razing on the shore

I stand alone

protean star aligning with horizons North