Homecoming
Now the immense loneliness begins.
— from “Onto a Vast Plain” Rainer Maria Rilke (The Book of Hour
The birch trees want to be left alone.
Lichen still fashions itself from algae and air;
heaven is only heaven.
Each evening comes sooner, bearing
the old beginnings.
Come let us find our way
beneath these brittle beams we thought
would guide us,
for I have brought us both enough
spent things, and chosen to keep
no record of what we were.
