In a quiet wood, branches bend softly under unseen weight

And shadowed grasses tremble as the earth sighs

My feet brush softly through meadows

Where wildflowers ask for nothing yet cost all I know

In a city glowing dim, beneath stone arches

Words once carved with pride fade to smooth silence

Forgotten statues eroded by rain and by winds indifferent to forever

And names whispered in the dust and dirt

I dreamed of rivers burning bright, of shores dissolving into mist

And a rhythmic hum at the edge of sleep where she spoke sweetly of endings

Of worlds turning slow and of singing forgotten songs

Beautiful, yet vanished as dew

And waking, I gathered strength from the low places

Where stubborn flowers and bird’s flight and the elegant arc of falling feathers

Are the closest we could yearn to get

To the end at the end of the end

In darkness, a voice in my blood stirs me to stand firm

To shine boldly in this short season

For even stars know their hour

And spend themselves in brightness

And it tells me there is grace in small resistances

A hand reaching out to meet someone new, a love that chooses to remain

Insistence against the louder horror that hearts, however fleeting

Leave gentle imprints wherever we’ve been

And if I close my eyes, I feel them all

The lost, the loved, the hidden, the revealed

Like a single thread of starlight woven through me

And briefly held, like a breath