when you wake
before dawn fills the sky
with light, and you know
the dark time is closing down
the earth’s turning
teaching your aging body
creak and ache responding
yes—the dying’s finally
here, here, here—not
fluke or freak or random
too young, too soon, accident

but absolute necessity
and gift

when you rejoice in this
gray clouds floating over head
in the vast dim blue awakening
you will touch what you’ve been
chasing so many years
what you’ve heard exists
unseen, not felt

born in silence
suckled in stillness
nourished by darkness
and pain, the unending
ever-present joy
10/7/2005to11/10/2025