I remember

The cherished shelter of your lap, the quiet assuring shadow

You cast over me

I wanted to keep the sun out

There was enough inside

I remember your face in the soft white glow

A full moon emerging out of a haunted half-darkness

You were the queen of my private night skies

I used to do more than breathe

I used to live then

 

I wish I never had to know the moon

Has a dark side

 

The empty hand is a terrible bother

A chronic deficiency of another hand to grab

But I shall not be loud about this

These quiet secrets will only be heard by the night when the moon is gone

It is not the stuff of happy yellow daylight

I persist to keep it out, but this time

Not because there’s enough inside

 

There is a horizon waiting for me somewhere

Red against navy like a Sinbad story

But those stories, I forgot,

Those stories need two persons to be complete

But I shall not be loud about this

 

The turbulence of time sweeps us on

So many things to do, so many secrets to know

So many things to trust in and visit and hate

And we shall never find time again

To draw the curtains, keep out the sun

And know there is enough in the assuring shadow

You once used to cast over me

There is no more time, is there,

To believe this simple joyous truth

That we had once etched onto the fabric of life

 

It’s too late and it all has grown too old and hard

To ask why, for I fear there is nothing to change

Look, the passive flow in time awaits us

We must not be late

 

It is a different unpleasant matter

That another humble want, another small quest

To establish miracle in the heart of this concrete life

Will die quietly

I will be there to mourn it

And I fear it is too late and it all has grown too old and hard

To expect you to be there

But I shall not be loud about this

I shall keep out the sun to the other face where it belongs

And be the sole unfortunate prisoner of the dark side of the moon

1Life