WHEN

When I consider all I could write, since

My mind like no one else's phrased, I sense

An apathetic silence perimeters my thoughts

Shrouding the voice in a wilderness, unanswered.

When all I have said rises to recall

Echoes of voices otherwise forgotten,

An expectation loiters like this haze,

Pausing commuters on their way or after,

Over a letter or through gaps in their gossip,

Those eyes beyond my speaking's wavering

Bound to hear untethered talk, maverick laughter.

They steeple-chase the moment, candle-flamed

Amusement's tune, and thronging shadow-like

Desire contrast from tedious tasks, heart-felt

Strangeness enphantomed in their muffled view.

Ticker-tape garbage, a trail of wick and tallow

Remain a moment after where they follow.

And mine, the applause of water. My bare feet,

Where earth ends, step testingly tentative

Where younger or, with more of afternoon's heat,

I plunged impetuously insensitive.

Degrees of fading light, this planet's motion

Visibly turning toward night, I am aware,

With upstart wind, abrupt shades on the ocean,

The spangling behind me in the darkening air,

That here, now, is the edge of a moment's choice:

Ocean speaks each to each impinging, receding,

Approaching modulations of a voice.

Year by year, I move toward unacknowledging

You, universal other, elusive thing

Unknown still, my transient presence terminal;

But who else when I wonder can I question?

And you, a mountainous distance mimic mirroring

Disinterested spectation, overecho

The little all I know, will speak no word

On my behalf, nor after, say I tried,

Silence surging gently over footprints with the tide.

KLK

1989