I watched you there,
dancing in my skin.
It hung in tatters
from your delicate limbs.
My bones were shattered,
but I took them up again;
a disaster,
but it was not the end.
You pumped my blood
with your perfect heart.
Through your veins,
I knew just from the start,
that you were insane,
raised to the highest art.
Eventually everything falls apart
and hangs in tatters.
You made wings out of my sinew.
Strips of flesh, thin as feathers.
You spread them wide
and stepped off the cliff;
gone into forever.
I couldn’t watch you,
for my eyes were yours;
all I could do is sense you
by some unknown force.
If you made it,
I never got word.
Around here, these days,
the wind is never heard,
but there are birds
standing on the old flag pole
and the colors of my soul
hang there in tatters.
I am just a man,
or at least I was.
Until I gave away my body
for a cause, because,
there are things
greater than me
and these things I love
are what really matters.
It’s not in me to fear
the ever after.
Time will leave
all things we love
in tatters.
HG – 2018
