New day’s sun
burns a long highway ride.
Rips paths through a thousand miles
of forests and mountains,
all the way West
to the ocean.
I set aside my mind
and the chance of failure.
All I crave is the disconnect,
I need it like I used to need
love,
and booze,
and dope,
and acceptance.
The path changed me.
It forked on a curve
and I went flying.
Crash landed down a ravine
and thought for sure I was dead.
I lay there,
hung up in the rocks and trees
for hours,
watching my blood drip
into strange patterns
on the rocks.
I waited to die,
but night came
and I didn’t go.
It might have been
a hallucination
brought on
by fear,
or blood loss,
or trauma,
but I felt a presence with me.
Someone was there.
They stayed with me,
sat with me,
through that cold, dark night
of pain,
and absolute despair.
My visitor told me
of my purpose,
and my place
in this world,
and in the others.
All I was,
and all I could become,
laid bare for me.
Shouting and lights above.
Crashing bodies,
racing down the rocks
into the underbrush.
The thin light of dawn
through the trees.
A new day’s sun
and hands that lift me to safety.
Life.
A gift given and restored.
Hope and Faith,
fuel in the tank.
That road winds out long,
and I
may not make it to the ocean.
I might find a place
amongst those majestic peaks
to call my own.
God knows,
this day-to-day world
is not my kingdom,
just as it isn’t His.
He and I are gonna ride out together
and catch up on old stories.
A few thousand years
of new days,
sunshine
and long roads.
HG – 2022
