Journey

This journey I’ve been on has been a bit rugged at times

Sometimes I don’t really know what I am looking for

Or who

I’ve left some wreckage along the way

I did not mean to, I’m clumsy in my naivete

Of the means and methods of relationships

I go in with such hope, my tongue is soft and mellow

Caressing and soothing, full of honey

The tides start to shift, slight wavelets changing course

I can see them moving at odd angles

The alarm starts to sound in the distance

Way back in the back of my brain

But my heart is still leading me on

Floating and gliding, dipping down to taste

The sweetness as I savor this one I am with

The wind has shifted again, there is chop on the sea

The dingy is slowly taking on water

Then the sun appears as brilliant as ever

It is blinding, I cannot see who is with me

But the warmth sooths me and once again I am calm

I write sonnets in praise of love, full of joy

I enter the waters of the gently, rolling river

Carried along as if held in its arms by a tender lover

Oh, that I could stay in this place forever

Then I sense something looming in the distance

Then I hear them within, the racket is deafening

Rapids, swift and dark

Rocks crashing into me

Pounding my bones

I go down to the deep many times

I am unable to breathe

I attempt to claw back up through the waves

My fingers find no purchase

All at once I shoot out over the edge

Tumbling down, down, down

Under the falls

Choking and gasping

I am pushed to the riverbank like a dead leaf

Sodden and limp

I am empty

As the night falls, I raise my head

I see the stars flickering like thousands of candles

I am cold now, now that this journey is ended

Shivering I await the dawn’s light

I will have to walk out of this canyon too

Looking for that next bend in the river

Wondering what it portends

I should note that this is now past tense