All I Am
Long slender tendril of mist in the morning
snakes slowly across the cool water, wandering,
endlessly,
searching, moving slowly, seemingly without purpose,
without direction, without destination.
It fades like a ghost into the shadows,
only to reappear when the filtered light winks anew
and its silver coat of crystalline breath shimmers in its
tears.
It reflects the light of the lonely world through which it passes,
like a wraith embarking on its unknowable quest, aimlessly
meandering,
the dark water, its home.
Only briefly does he touch the occasional soul he encounters
leaving cool moist kisses on smooth tender cheeks
searching for the warmth he knows he will never have,
the closeness he can never share.
He remembers.
Yes, each caress, each kindness.
The gentle whisper of the trees as they speak among themselves,
but they don't see him.
They don't feel him as he slowly slips past.
He watches as the fish jump to catch their morning meal of damsel flies,
oblivious to his presence.
He leaves a part of himself on each thing that he touches,
each blade of grass, every grain of sand, the sweet scented petals
that spring forth from the buds of the morning glory,
the lovers embracing on the shore.
How he envies each.
Eagerly, openly he gives, asking nothing in return.
Everything he has he gives, everything he is
without expectation he gives, yet,
no one sees him.
But a moment of mystery,
he soon becomes the fog that clouds the vision,
nothing more than a haze to look beyond.
No one shares,
no one to share.
Always alone.
The sun peeks expectantly over the bleeding horizon
sharing hints of the promise of a new dawn.
He awaits.
The light brightens as the shadows recede hiding like a child hides
shyly behind his mother.
Still he waits.
The shining smile of the sun beckons him as he feels the hint of its warm rays,
filling him.
Impatiently he reaches up into its waiting arms.
How he wishes to feel its caress.
How he wishes to hold it against him, to feel its radiant glow.
He twirls and spins like a whirlwind flying higher and higher
until the sun's smile begins to wane.
He knows he can never reach it.
Looking down again he sees himself fading,
the warmth he seeks the harbinger of his inevitable demise.
Such longing he has.
One last sad smile he offers,
a radiance that encompasses him.
Disappearing like his hope and desire
he watches life
as it awakens before him.
02/10/17
Copyright © James Inman | Year Posted 2017
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