Digging
Sometimes I stand across my life’s abyss
And shovel memories from the pit of time
Some stick to the blade while others miss
As I slice through guilt and deceitful slime
To reach a somewhere before the fall
From almost nothing into everything
To strip away the years’ translucent caul
And hear the sightless silent voice sing
The hands that tap your window in the night
Eyes looking back from a shadowy lane
Laughter filtered through a summery light
And stinging words that forever remain
Nothing endures like a smoothly planed past
The joints neatly dovetailed with love and lust
A polished veneer embellished to last
Till the lustre palls and fades into dust
My spade tips the last of the debris aside
Dumped on this pile of memory scree
The years trickle back in a broken tide
To cover the earth that used to be me