In His Last Hours of Daylight

[Don't try to interpret it.  Just read and feel...]  

Pictures showing smiles   
Sandcastles and seashells      
Collected as mementos      
Memories blurring   
Then fading,      
Then black…      
The hidden ocean of transformation      
Submersed to a depth where old light can not reach      
       
Umbilical.      
Retreating.      
Fetal.      
Rethinking.      
Blind.   
Realizing.      
Echoes of a distant heartbeat      
Rebirthed in pain      
      
Frames surrounding eyes      
Glimmers in the day      
Shine      
A single cloud upon the sky      
and a pen upon the page      
Breaks      
Bleeding      
Staining paper      
Expanding      
Feeding      
Then black…      
The forbidden ocean of direct contact      
Submersed to a depth to be protected from the bright      
Blind      
       
Words losing meaning      
Gestures incomplete      
Rethinking      
Touch absent   
(In a ‘reduction of needs’ sort of way)      
Retreating      
A façade of faces washing up upon a shore      
Collected as mementos      
Memories blurring   
Then fading   
Until they are no more      
       
Family portraits   
With some family missing      
The belly of the beast is ticking      
Pangs of hunger growing      
Growling toward the echoes of a distant heart   
Rolls of thunder forming clouds      
Swallowing the sky      
Eyes tearing in the dwindling bright      
Still blind      
and now,   
Somewhat frightened      
       
A single drop upon the page      
Upon the path the pen has made      
Expanding sky      
Absorbing waters      
Words bleeding      
Losing meaning      
The private ocean of nothing sacred   
Rethinking these matters of an imprisoned heart      
      
Eyes readjusting      
Thoughts realizing      
Rebooting / Digitizing      
Fading / Pixelating      
Resolution reducing down to nil      
Failures cascading      
System crashed upon the reef of tarnished frames   
On family portraits      
Fading smiles and blurring eyes      
      
Blood and water mingle      
Single drops upon the page      
Placing vultures in the sky and sharks below the waves      
Flotsam floats upon the faces      
Water damaged and strewn upon the shore      
Echoes of a distant heartbeat      
Collected as mementos      
Until they are no more      
       
Electric information      
Arranged to this approximation      
Two pairs of blurring eyes      
One yours      
The other, mine      
And these words have now      
Completely   
       
lost   
       
their   
      
meaning.      
In the terrifying ocean of not knowing what to say       
      
With vultures in the clouds and sharks below the waves      
Smiles fading   
Gestures remaining incomplete      
Everything is starving      
Wanting for its piece/peace      
Submersed now to a depth where old light can not reach      
Blurring smiles with fading eyes      
The isolated ocean of finally realizing      
and knowing,   
Beyond a doubt       
what comes next      
       
Umbilical.      
Retreating.      
Fetal.      
Rethinking.      
Blind.   
Realizing.      
Echoes of a distant heartbeat      
      
Then black...      
Released from pain      
       
Flotsam strewn upon the shore      
For mile on endless mile      
Collected as mementos      
       
These...       
      
                 pictures...      
      
      showing...      
      
                      
          smiles.    




Dedicated to Russell McHughes Carawan
10/21/1941 - 01/09/2012
Thank you for giving me life.
R.I.P., good sir.