Across Time and River

Written
1996

 Should you cross the river before me,

        hesitate a moment.

Wait, I'll be along.

The frog's song

        guides me.

Flying crows

       light a moon map.

And the fireflies

       beacon my way.

I'll be right along.

Grief and longing

        will speed me.

But, if I cross

        before you,

        I will camp

        there waiting,

        playing songs

        to guide you.

Don't hurry.

Taste for us

        the wines once more.

Picnic in the

       iris field.

Press dry

       another white rose.  

See another sunrise

       above the fog

       in the Berkeley hills.

Etch in memory

        the last beauty mists. 

We will want

       those memories.  

Bid all good-by

        for us.

Take your time.

I'll wait. 

Pack carefully.

I will be there. 

Then no river

        between us.

 

 

Notes
Death parted friends and I got caught up in the rhetoric of afterlife and crossing the river. The widow liked and now she is dead. I never wonder if they met on the other side of the river.