"An early evening" - in seven-syllable lines - just written

near Sarria, Galicia, Spain

An early evening of slow-

moving solitude that creeps

towards the dense awareness

of darkness arriving with

the dimming of a subtle

glow in the western sky when

the shield is raised against dark

doubt and the uncertainty

that the glow will return to

the eastern sky some ten or

eleven hours from now and

how do you make it through those

some ten or eleven hours?

do you drink till then so that

your pain upon dull rising

from your stupor greets that new

glow? do you ingest tiny

pills to dull you further till

that glow arrives then more pills?

do you expend and sweat your

energies and physical

urges deep inside someone

or with someone who is deep

inside you? do you spend the

night in prayer or breathe in

breathe out meditation so

that the eastern glow arrives

from within and spreads itself

outward towards the west to

be seen and felt by others?

do you simply sleep and dream

vivid dreams of your darker

self to be brought into light

by the eastern glow and soon

shoved back into the darkness

for other dreams and other

lives? but regardless of your

method the eastern glow will

arrive even if you feel

its warmth from within you or

you are still dark lost to it

and you are lost to yourself