Author: Elizabeth Maynard

With most pleasures unfamiliar
I thought duty would redeem
days and hours, lifetimes too
but all work, we know
makes not only dull but desperate
dry and unable to breathe

We lived lives the other never dreamed
you went no further than the ridge
river, dark of the woods
all that was real for you
rose and fell in that singular place
you could walk the boundaries
of your whole world in one long day
But I have never known
how to find myself at home
always adrift among worlds
longing for rest and the last
wandering year

If I knew how to weep
I would dash heart-first into it
So many tearless years
and burdens borne
dry sands and seas crossed
companionless and holding
my breath so long
surely I must have flown by now

I wash my hands again
to lose the touch of you
ready now for everything
to be new and full
of the unbreakable promise

I spun all week dizzy
imagining your need
hungry to meet it
Now I do not know
how or where to rest
misled by my own
keychain compass

I'm no cat but I
would lick soft cream all day long
if you poured for me

Each of your green wings
pushes you out in the world
to bridge soil and sky

One day, bright shining
you will gaze unshaded at
what you have become

I saw your coffin today
tied to the top of that van
No hearses here
unless you are wealthy
It is already too much
that you are gone
Now they take you home
wrap you in linen
set you to rest at sunset
with the bones of all
who came before

There is some place on this green earth
that will, one day, receive me
all my complaints will end there
everything unfinished drawn to a close
I will be released at last
into the great mystery