The way
to start
is to
end be
it sentence
paragraph chapter
or book
one must
come before
to make
room for
the after
Boat
I am
more empty
than full
having tossed
most of
what I
knew overboard
and now
this boat
I’ve been
having regained
its buoyancy
skims along
never sinking
despite being
wake battered
Never
If but for
a moment would
I could I
I think not
for like sand
running through fingers
and back to
the beach or
snow that falls
for so briefly
turns to water
things don’t stay
that were never
Alive
And then this
why oh why
do its fingers
find the strings
and though delicately
still somehow pluck
and I’m played
a little bit
out of tune
but still the
same old song
and my body
feels the haunting
vibrations of longing
deep and dark
and somewhere inside
it warming me
knowing I’m alive
Wash
What’s left
of you
hides in
the hamper
picked up
and put
waiting to
be washed
when again
at last
it will
be fresh
to once
again hide
your body
from eyes
never meant
to see
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 