There’s always a place for an old horse
Though it can take no more to the long road.”
          – Tu Fu, 768

 

Gunfights and gone lovers

crowd into dreams

wanting their stories retold,

yearning to be remembered.

I sort each night

through their purgatory

adrift except a dream

give them taste

of life among the living.

In the morning

I leave the worn trail

knowing one day

I’ll look back

on those yet alive

but now here you are

returning my eyes

to the light of day,

the fruit of our tree

upon slender branches

with a river of green

flowing out from every finger

to what wanders in the night.