Rhapsody

‡

Lying on the earth,
gazing at stars through the haze,
through a nexus of branches,
at peace, filled with peace, nothing but peace,
peace and stillness at last,
the end of life,
its purpose and its terminus,
its dearest hope,
the last moment, the end of time.

‡‡

The stars at last are kind,
the moon no longer a face after deathblow;
the earth opens, one pore at a time.
Go thy ways, little one.

‡‡‡

Time rises through you,
a shoot through a fallen leaf.
You sink into its past, your past,
the past of everything that bore you up
when you skimmed across the earth,
a stone skipping on the lake,
sinking now at last,
the lake only again
at last.