DEPARTURES

DEPARTURES

Skies hold unfathomable mysteries.

You will know what I mean if you've looked closely.

 So many clouds move across the sky like little bath toys

Sailing in God's blue bath water.

I wish the clouds would stay still

For just a little longer than they do.

I am setimental about clouds,

More sentimental about the people I love.

That's why I'm troubled by all these comings and goings

I like the illusion that things stay the same.

But every time I turn around I'm confronted with the fact

That the only thing of permanence is change.

Friends come, then fade to black.

Lovers float in and out of my consciousness,

Speaking softly their untimely departures.

i would have liked to have held them, but they wriggled and squirmed in my arms,

Afraid of being trapped by gray-haired time.

I hold them fondly when I roll in dreams, but I sleep fitfully,

Knowing they are insufficient ghosts.

Life holds unfathomable mysteries.

Who knows why I had to leave a place and time where I was joyous,

Why I've come to ponder clouds,

To beat my brains against brick walls,

In search of hidden meanings.

I'm sentimental about life, more sentimental about the places I've left behind.

I remember every corridor, every portrait, and every human touch.

I recall my past; I cry because my past does not remember me.

Places come, then fade to black.

Colors and smells float in and out of my consciousness,

Triggering dreams and fantasies.

Past events, like eerie ghosts, tap my shoulder late at night,

Speaking softly their untimely departures.

-Bruce Potts

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