A Compendium of Life

“Our beating hearts: the drums calling us home”

Sisters finished threading

the point’s toiled ends.

Two knots separating

Meaning from intent.

A life’s start and finish

Inscribed on a line.

A noose to diminish

Our notion of time.

How lovely would it be

To dance with the wind

Atop a Redwood tree

See stars orbiting.

Never would we misstep

No beat to goad us;

Bodies of life, bereft:

You’ve gained your senses.

Here it is you who heard

The piper’s new song,

And decided to learn

How to sing along.

One may choose life or death

But cannot have both;

The thinner your life’s breath

The more of life’s known

Cruel how the Fates bequeathed

A blueprint for our

Time of gnashing of teeth—

I yearn for that hour

I leave you now to parse

Who the hangman is

Is it all but a farce

Or is she within

Hangman! To the gallows!

I look to the sky

I invoke my sorrows

And take my last flight.

Goodbye my friend up high

How I wish I had tried.