In the darkness
A rosette
Neither portal
Nor beacon
A reminisce
A reminder
Of the light
Beyond darkness
In the darkness
A rosette
Neither portal
Nor beacon
A reminisce
A reminder
Of the light
Beyond darkness
I remember days long past
Of sunshine and calm
Depths still clear
At forty feet
The rod held
Expectantly
In your son’s hands
Paddle in yours
The strokes
A gentle
Powerful
Grace
You didn’t care for fishing
But I did
So out we went
My youth
A stream of summer memories
New England lakes
Bass and wallabies
A pickerel here and there
The perch and sunnies
Disdainfully thrown back
Paddling today
On a perfect day
I reflect on those times
And the times that would follow
Times of storms and dark clouds
Murky shallows
When we were not always
So gentle with each other
Awkward
Sometimes graceless
The depth of you
Forever unreachable
But still I knew you
As the father who’d take me out
For no more than the pleasure
Of my pleasure
That is
I knew
Always
That you loved me
You’ve been gone now
For longer than I ever had you
For your eulogy
I used the metaphor
Of the missing wingman
A natural for the pilot father
But on this day
Of sunshine and calm
Of depth and clarity
I notice a second paddle
Laying against the empty seat
Wishing your hands were upon it
So that once again
We could take on this task of living
With the harmony of paddling
Together
They seem to be much
Grander
Than the times I’m living now
I create them like
A dream
All lofty and sublime
Believing there’s
A truth
To the beauty of the lie
I hear the roil of white noise
Waves crashing through the broken rock
Source obscured and muffled by darkened boughs
Clinging thickly to rising land