Preservation Act

Creosote

this autumn sun sinking through a fire maple sky
burning the hardwood reminiscence of

a judas kiss from wine stained lips,

open umbrellas inside the structure of a fragile psyche,

tell tale signs of dark days arriving on black-winged winds,

the hum of melodies comforting lonesome highway miles,

madness and delusion consummating inside a mind out of time,

the turning knives of lost loves wounding foolish pride,

road worn, soft shoe scuffling of walking away from it all,

the longing to belong abandoned in the pursuit of unconditional love,

stretching across the silence for a heaven to behold,

an unused sense of security left to auctioneering,

murdering opportunity and setting fortune afire,

tempting fate and baiting reason though well aware of the rocks below,

laughter medicating the brain damage of depression,

the emptiness not quite escaping over a man-made wall,

a story of scars under, not upon, this memoir skin,

climbing a history of hills in search of a river of words,

the blaze of bridges lingering in the smolder over a shoulder,

listening to the sermon of leaves from an arboreal pulpit ,

dying by degrees whenever took for granted,

living in the moment, the creosote of new memories defying mortality,

that final winter sun submitting to the black oak sky,
smothering the charred wood of reminiscence

photo: 'creosote sunset' by j. scott bovitz