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