I thought I would never
find my way back.
A shell on the beach,
a piece of lint looking for its loom.
I thought I was lost,
put to sea on an oarless boat,
uprooted like an old tree,
never meant to be moved.
The road paved and straight,
destiny woven into destiny,
like time measured on a clock,
certain and pure,
and then…
Fate with its wide smile,
its infinitesimal grin,
the imp that washes our footprints away,
said, “Ted, it is time
to go into the open door of an abyss.
To ascend to the sky without wings,
to walk on the firmlessness of the air,
to know there is no road
that does not end,
no time that does not stop,
no light that does not leave darkness,
no soul that does not know its end
as well as its beginning.
So I was cast adrift,
without job,
without friends,
without the child
whose life shone like a shield,
simply,
that my hands must reach into the sea,
and feel the tide rise with a day,
and life must start over
moment to moment,
smile to smile,
taking root where it can.