In My Marrow
To what weird silent abode of flown spirits and souls
Has the week I've been here disappeared?
I hear impatient time whispering, in my ear,
Intimations of another season's reluctant retreat.
Or is it death's messenger,
Muttering, under its fetid breath,
In a threatening, barely intelligible dialect,
Something to the effect that I'd better watch my step,
Not look back, at the shadowy trespasser,
Disguised as crazily decorated leaves, blue skies,
Rapidly closing in on me.
I well remember staying in this lake-graced village
During other blustery Septembers,
But not ever feeling cold so close to the bone,
My skeleton aching, from some unknown malaise.
Indeed, on those unconflicted brisk occasions,
I took lasting, lyrical inspiration
From this land's rhythmical tranquillity,
The austere, often-raw randomness of nature's severity.
Why, today, my marrow stirs with such vague despair,
I can only hope has nothing to do
With winter appropriating my bones, too.
09/24/10 - (3)
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