Driftin'

for Barbara


not enough fat on my bones to float
half burned half drowned,
blinded by sun, pondered by fish,
water music minnows,
overhanging branches scrape the eyes,
mast rising, the skull & bones, windblown

such serenity
helpless to float, I lie draped over an inner tube,
ass feet arms in the water,
behold the dragonfly
so easy floating past banks of skin under breast shadows,
her songbirds humming, out to sea
once past known landmarks i'll be gone forgotten,
no trace but a trail of smoke and nostalgia,

ripples watched by children playing on the rocks beyond their mothers' calls,
past the reach of meals and stories and promises,
a golden age of marriage and work and failure,
their stones fly over the water,
my ripples turned to waves obscure the deep placid curve of moments, seasons
and all they'll carry to their graves,
or bequeath to the future,
is a dim nostalgia of a scraggy bag o' bones,
barely floating,
on an inner tube past their toothy grins and lovely waving arms

such peace
time without intelligence,
matter without feeling,
eyes burning, staring at the sun,
blindness, dumbness,
sound of my own heartbeats - paradiddles in the ocean wave,
floating finally west in sunset

1994



And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,
still, leagues beyond those leagues, there is more sea.
Dante Gabriel Rosetti

I just keep driftin and driftin
Charles Brown