Elegy

Colorado helped you along
In your memory, your telling;
The dusk, the shadows, and the stars:
Your hands shaking like the treeline,
Clumsy with striker and steel match.
You could barely stand to be seen
Sparks pouring from your fingertips.
You could hardly bear to be heard.

Slipping away into the west
The states, the mountains moved aside -
The ages, the griefs, the lost days.
You were embarrassed with your grace -
A sudden mercy, and final.
You knew each one of our goodbyes
And fanned each into a poem
Within a circle of small men.

North Dakota helped you along
In your memory, your telling;
The rain, the rivers, and the dark;
The way things were when work went thin
And your wife left for higher ground;
The road nosed up against your door,
The sound of your laughter was changed,
And what you took to heart was left

In the space manufactured by
The way your hands filled your pockets.

Alaska was ridiculous.

Heads shaking all around the coals.

And silence, then. A way around.

I was nervous, and could not sleep.

Water moved around the jungle.

Those gone days haunt my children's sleep.