The Visitor

PHOTO: Diego Fernandes 2009

I live searching
For quiet breaths
At your shoreline.
My intemperate life
Slowly drying, fading
In winter’s sun.
Your water's clear
But passing floods
Of passing years
Left scattered detritus
Sunken dreams
Treasure from strangers
Thrown overboard
For future discovery.

I glance behind
My future where
I had yet left
No trace print,
Where my soles
Impressions wander
Bereft of weight.
Little shrines built
Where the recent
Living found long
Dead forests grown
Matured, vanished
Root and branch
Twig and leaf
Before their time.

I chase waters
Toward the sky
And simple nimbus
Reflect vaguely.
My path beckons
Urging flight.
Become a river
In the desert
Whisper skeletons
And broken glass.
Remember nothing
Save Hesperides.
Can memory
Injure the path
If it does not
Injure me?