Midnight

One, two, three, four…

Time slips sideways out the door.
Bleeding, stumbling,
days of yore
come flooding back into the fore.

And here I sit, forevermore.

Roll out my spine on the hardwood floor.

Remembering before…

How it felt,
to touch, to soar.
At liberty to explore.

I wait.

Grateful for the days
past,
passed in childish ways.
How it felt to move in waves,
on the shore
or
in the middle of a dance floor.

Humanity,
crushed and crushing,
rushed and rushing,
confined
in time,
locked away.

But I remember.
I recall
society.
Beautiful,
flawed,
ready to fall.

Tumbling down
the stairways of my memory:
drunken youth,
stolen moments,
blind hope,
wild courage.

It’s all in there.

I carry in my heart
a world,
apart.
A start.
A shard.
Broken for now.

But this is how
it comes together
again.

The nucleus within,
powerful,
holding;
rolling the gravity
to pivot,
turn.
Burn the unkempt kindling away.

March, now May.

Each day
much like the one before.

I store
these seeds,
parched,
forgathered,
to answer needs
as yet
unmet.

Fire propagates.

And, still, I wait.
Eager to follow time,
forward,
just outside the door.