No
one is an island,
so
the poets say
We
are all connected
Below
the bridge between us
water
once laughed, dancing over stones
Now
the current sighs, steam rising from the icy flow
Where
we once stood, shoulder to shoulder
watching
paper boats sail out to sea,
under
my feet now the boards,
once
so solid and sure
are
charred and brittle.
They
crumble in the wind,
spiraling
down, dark barges
drifting
into the fog
Careless
embers lit the fire....
A
haven, steadfast, true, irrevocably damaged.
I
kneel over the smoldering chasm
barring
the way to your shuttered garden,
and
wild brambles spring up
over
the path to my own sheltered hearth
