Evanescent Images

sit on the rock beside the lake
it’s early in the morning
the fog hasn’t lifted yet

the wind speaks to me:

your work is done for today
you captured images of birds
and you were up there with them
flying as one of them
you felt it
you were part of it
you lived in my embrace
outside of your bones
you can’t think of any reason
to go back to the earth

the birds were my hopes
my visions of splendor, my ideals

I captured images of evanescent angels
whose flight trails were rainbows

then as suddenly as the beat of their wings
I lost them
I can’t find them any more
I don’t try any more

the wind knows
how I long to keep the rapture!

the wind commands me

there is only one way
you must do this:

touch the very still water
at daybreak
when the lake is shrouded and wondrous
when the air is cool and sweet
touch the water
leave your body here
fall back thousands of years to simplicity
leave it and fall back
touch the water so gently
stir it slowly
fall into simplicity
fall, and as you do
watch a woman’s face take form in the ripples
her face is luminous, it is real
she calls to you
she wants you to return to her
thousands of years ago
when you were both innocent
when the air was clean and sweet smelling
listen to her
she wants you to return to her time
go to her now
touch the water
touch her image
move closer to it
don’t be afraid
fall back
touch it
enter it




“The world is continually proclaiming these words: Beware, I am evanescent, and so are all my outward appearances and colours. Take ye heed of the changes and chances contrived within me and be ye roused from your slumber. Nevertheless there is no discerning eye to see, nor is there a hearing ear to hearken.” (Baha’u’llah )