Eddie

- The Seasons Of Grief: Chapter I - Poem X -

Go ahead, picture me in the trees,

Nine years and feet tall,

Swinging high above the creek,

Too afraid to leap,

But soaring anyway,

With Magnolia spread wide beneath my feet,

Take your time Eddie, count the beautiful things

Taste the sweet tea of summer,

Let it linger on your tongue,

Cross your heart,

Keep this moment sacred,

Unburdened by the weight of what’s to come,

Decades pass, your face feels like a fading hollow dream,

But the love I hold for you,

Is complicated, yet bright and unyielding,

The patterns of clouds we once wove into the sunlight,

Our love stretches wide,

From Shenandoah to Houston,

A gift passed down,

Timeless as a childhood song

And I’ve been meaning to tell you,

Forgive the shadows in your house,

The thunder in your father’s voice,

Go run outside, barefoot in the weeds,

Where your screams once echoed with ferocity,

That innocence was freedom,

That innocence was yours

Don’t worry about tomorrow,

Don’t search for answers hidden in the mulch mounds,

Feel the wind on your face,

Breathe in the air of the moment,

Live without the foreboding lists of tasks to bind you

Pack your figures, sweaters, and costumes with feathers,

We’ll move to Seattle forever,

Carry it all into an endless summer,

Let the days stretch long and golden,

Ignore the whispers of the dark ages beyond the trees,

There is a point you’ll reach,

Where your innocence fades,

Where disrupters take the light of your eyes,

And kill it with inconceivable lies,

Where wonder turns to knowing,

But not yet, not now

Stay here, on the childhood swing,

In the weeds,

In the freedom of ignorance,

Let your love not decimate in a glance,

Stretch endlessly,

Like a song that never ends