During my trip to Vermont in July/August, I visited the Devil’s Tower, where I had an experience that changed not only the course of my life, but the shape of my past. The details of this experience will remain with me, within me, to be buried with my bones and passed only to the heart of what posterity visits my grave. I will pass it then, the whole promise of it, one All Soul’s Eve, and so will the Promised.
For even then will we be side by side.
promise
from the moment i looked up and saw
just over my head your memory
draped off the stub remains of
a ponderosa’s lower branch
from the moment i felt lightning flash
through my mortal form till numb
my fingers tingled the beginnings of
an electric understanding
from the moment my eyes took in
the simple shape of your past hung
to the south of the bear-scratched tower
bleached white with unshed tears
from the moment i realized i stood
where grief-struck eyes set your spirit free
held hands and prayed for your hope
overlooking a plain of creeping thunder
from the moment you reached out and touched
my song with hidden fingers and embraced
my heart my mind my long forgotten dreams
with all the love you gave in life
oh my god i knew you then clear
as the cobalt sky that shook over dark
rumbling clouds suspended far
far in the distance
and from that moment i’ve carried
the shimmering whisper of your ghost in my
bones my joints my manhood like a promise
tangible as the stars themselves
