Beside the Silver Stream
 
.

Shivering hyphae

swell across the expanse of soil,

buried deep within

the memory

of that moment.

 

There is a hymn trembling

in the currents of air,

like the murmur of tree-bound leaves,

the motion of flower stems

that nest

down with the moss

and the rot.

 

Maiden’s hair fern shadows

a basin,

where water moves in circles,

reminiscent of the Koi

which once dwelled in the lower levels.

 

My hair is drifting now,

gone greenish in the river

and half laying damply across the rock

and the sand,

eyes and lips closed…

 

I am clothed in a membrane,

pale and flaccid,

near-white with death,

and sticky…

dripping liquid life

across the shore.

 

My lungs have ceased to breathe

long before,

although my heart

keeps an unsteady beat

to the sound

of weeping.