Askings in the Dusk

Scorched edges sealed-- so quick, with a ribbon tied-- That one can't help but wonder: Where landed the seeds The storm scattered?

Seething pools inhabited The wells we dug with our hands Sparked, spattered, cracked The steam rises, Vapor entangled in the web of muted stars If swelling fire can turn to wisps so easily... Where landed the sparks? the ashes?

This place is home, you say But home isn't stony chunks Dead trunks and roots upturned What of these trees? What of these mountains? What--tell me!-- What of these trees, When did home become flat, dead stools? What of these trees? What of these whispers home?

You talk of past times Slippery are your words Drowned you change to watery defeat, Plunging to splash, a dip of your toes But never a dry word to dribble down your chin The tears you choke on Turn your syllables to liquidy fables When you talk of past times.

With all of the gravity of the fading stars, And with all of the levity of the eternal Wind, I ask you: Where landed the seeds The storm scattered? Where landed the sparks? the ashes? Where settled the smoke that rose? Where anchored your feet-- after skidding on clouds and clouds, after digging your heels into the puff, leaping head over heels over head over and over-- Where anchored your feet? Where stood the Man you were? And where stands the man you have become? And where, in what space, stands the difference?

I squint. Behind the mountains I see... Gray beings with foggy corners, Buoyed by the snowy peaks. I squint and I see clouds on clouds, chasing the pale dotty stars, or maybe just racing away, Far away racing from the smoke.

In the dusk, I ask. In the smoke and the ashes, I ask. In the dusk and the vapor and the water, I ask. If the storm is passed, then why have the stars not brightened? If the smoke is cleared, then why do the ashes burn my nostrils? taint my palms? If the ground is dried, then why do my soles drip mud?

In the dusk, I ask. And I wait for the tree I wait, I wait for the tree Then I will know Where landed the seeds The storm scattered.

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