THIRD MOVEMENT
SONG SEVENTEEN
BURNING GROUND
I
“You are what you seem
a lightning bolt dreamed through a hollow tree
You’re back on the ground now
Eeeeei! What a flight!
Good work child! Good work in the dream!”
I am dumbstruck from two sides
by the old man taken for lost
by the red-black spiral of my fall.
“Can you speak?!” he squints an eye at me
Behind him, brilliant sun makes a halo of his thick white hair
His glow and the sun so entwined I can’t be sure he is there
“Yes. I can speak – at least enough to say – again
it is wondrous strange to find you really here.”
“Still the same and not strange at all
You are in the Dreaming and now you know.
You are free now. You are free to go.”
“Go where?” I ask but I already see
I have walked about with him and them.
Now I must walk with me.
He stands, and motions me to do the same.
He claps his hands and stamps his naked feet.
“Go then. Begin the walk good child.
Leave this old man to do the work that’s his!”
And a second time he grabs my head
and plants a warm wet kiss
He must shove me to get me moving
and when he does, I feel certainty sink in
I know
my steps on both sea and ground
I know
that the wind and time are right to go
I know
them all in the Dreaming’s sound
He is already far out in the shimmering heat
He does not turn
He does not wave
It is as if he is walking now both here and there
Of course he is!
I laugh and shake my head.
The scent of the unknown lures me forward
as I, too, burn ground
away from the lightning-struck tree
away from the vertigo of spiraling to ground
I know and am certain
I am awake – balanced as the vertigo begins
and I fall into another day
I decide to let death live at my left shoulder
since the old lover will be there anyway
I choose to consolidate perspective and to note
that very little that happens is of consequence
The nations of Death will never be appeased
and that makes all the difference
I am sure of my worth now
because I am empty – empty as that blackened tree
And there is a distinct feeling of moving out and away
Outward to stars
expanding toward home
All the beloveds, the teachers, left behind
yet met again in some larger, radiant form
It is time to travel down familiar roads and make
them stand out clear
like the first time seen
This time, each mile left behind will be the last
and I will re-member
The sun will soon pale into black
I will hurry now.
The light is going fast
I will hurry home before darkness comes again
I will not lose my way. I know where I am
ReplyDeleteShe is home.
Where is that?