The heavens they say are falling

The heavens they say are falling

Billowy clouds swooshing towards the grass in the lawn

Pressing down the peeking seedlings that overslept

With the weight of their tenuousness 

Rolling ponderously across the horizon as the wind also seeks shelter

The heavens they say are falling

Stars jostling for space to shoot

Across and straight down in a fiery rain 

A riot of flaming blizzards caught out in the summer day

As the Sun itself bears down from his perch above the skys

We can feel the universe contracting at pace

Shrinking us into squirming corners and then chasing us out of even those

Until we close our eyes since there is nothing to see any more

As the silence subdues the chaos

And nothingness replaces the beingness and we can take a breath

Take a deep breadth

And stand up with our hands raised palms against the firmament that has come this close

We can now open our eyes and see that we are still here and the heavens are still going about her journey

From millenium to millenium.  

Aleksandr, my friend

 Aleksandr,  my friend

I am sitting outside in the evening sun

I can see the sun closing her lashes

Shyly and regrettably

As the embers in our grill

Slowly turn to cold ash

And all I think about

Is where we will scatter your ash

Because Aleks, I know you won’t come back

Yes, we clapped your back

And joked about drones and camouflage and ambushes

We hailed your courage but 

Really that was the beer

And some hashish and whatever else was in that cocktail.

If you looked closely

You would have seen the fear behind the laughter

The horror at the death raining through the picnic tent

Through the apartment window where grandma used to rock her chair.

You’ve walked off into the distance

Teeth clenched , fist clenched 

To fight the battle that has come

Uninvited to your home. 

The beer is now tasteless

And the Twitter feed has dried up

And we are afraid that the shells

Did not consider your sacrifice

Nor your hugs,

Aleksandr, my friend. 

(For all those killed fighting for  their country in Ukraine )