BEARERS

I honored them all and was

as much to me as I could bear

the other sunrises ago

I used them all urged on

to lay down for one more age

a line set rhymed to time

now mine is nearly gone

to those retiring me

I cannot yawn and stretch

my soul to page them into passages

again a sunset pen run come to dry

me out of words I searched

how now I am not anxious yet for sleep

but they will bear me to it nonetheless

to where the unheard piping pipes

and tambourine mimes jingling under soft

the stars and moon rise one more time

and they will set me back again and leave

one day more less is left and darkened off the wall

until I read no more

and speak my silent words

that write the wind with quieted breath