SOLITAIRE
A solitary dog
Barking in the distance
Barking in the early evening darkness
Speaking of solitude
Speaking of one
Alone
Out on a wide-open plain
One, out alone…among many
One, struggled up the steel deck
Limping badly
Laboring
Physically
For breath
“Hey, what did you do to your leg?”
Long pause before looking at me, “Oh, that is just something my dad did to me.”
One, out alone…among many
One, knew he was going to lose everything
He knew he was going to lose the two individuals
Standing on either side of him
To these two individuals that he loved more than life itself
He gave everything
Until they were gone
He now walks barren, empty and alone…but he is not barren, empty and alone
They walk with him still…forever they will
They sat in a cold sterile hospital room
A frightened little boy
Trying to be brave
Is asked a question
“Do you want anyone to come in with you?”
Long pause, before looking at me
“I would like my Dad to come in with me,
I know he is not going to let anything bad happen.”
Images branded on his heart
Forever there they will remain
Abreast the still slow moving clear deep water
Silently moving through a labyrinth of caverns and caves
Moving through all the darkness, shadow and light of encountered lives
The red blood of the plant is pooled in his left hand
With his right hand and fingers
He begins to paint
He paints the dark stone
Knowing it depicts the future
He paints the white stone knowing it depicts the past
Opening that which is still
Opening that which is not tethered to time
The painting for the moment finished he steps back
Bringing both hands to his face he paints again…streaking…smearing
Then very slowly he turns
Knowing
She is in the shadow
Standing directly behind him
Standing
Waiting, as he has been waiting
Waiting in this lost labyrinth
Waiting in a high rise of New York
Waiting on an endless beach of Baja
Waiting for that which happens to them both
Over and over and over again
Through the wonder and wreckage of lives
Through the great successes and colossal failures of societies
Through the complete collapse of all infallible primary systems
They wait for each other, meet each other
Love each other
With a great and utter madness
All throughout what we know as time