songbird

a luminous moon once obstructed
baffled in layers of dull branches
depleted over cold distances that mute, outside
the prison yard of my thoughts

then as sudden as the utter surprise in fall light
all solace of dawn instantly dashed
a wondrous fountain, a musical magic
blinding song cascading to ear
and then again gone

tumbling from just above me in the trees
music of the first rain on leaves
lone and diamond throated call to fondness
distilled clearer than watery drops
a dulcet cleansing dirge, beyond love
a melody so reshaping from within
that in its absence

in that yawning echo of silence, whole departure
a very denial of her autumnal hymn

summoned in me a fierce refraction inward
harboring no motive to its beauty
yet without pity, an acidity to human paper
corroding with its spreading fingers out
from one vital glorious burst
and into a gnawing agony of loss
at bare a desperate clinging to senses

as faded morning passed
a deepening grief overtook the every mundane
draping its leaden sadness and suffocating
in its quiet, in being over
passed beyond my flesh's reach

as though writing in my clay: death comes smartly
quick-smothering
annihilating love and possibility
before lights dim into the unfathomable
and we at last know ourselves