LOVE'S GOODBYE

     From sorrow, to love, to sorrow.

     A thousand roads, and each
     with few candles.

     We are dust.  We are naked.
               We are bone.

     A hundred days of wine
     and gold.        
                    In a lifetime.

     For who alone is not alone
     in the end, in the beginning?

               In between:
     life's only answer, to be lived.

     Now there is only time --
     and time, as it happens.

     Darkness, light, and water...
     the stars, high in the still air.

     The trace,
     the touch... of a poem.

     And lo, how the beautiful bird
     has gone...
                       flown starkly.

     The wings not turned... nor taken.

     Today; tomorrow; and yesterday.

     And a place       not given
     to return.