I Was Scared

In the dark cave, laced with darker bats,
I was scared of the passing time.
Scared of the dust that I would eventually become.
Scared of the ashes awaiting my flesh.

Rich with the taste of my loves, I would depart
My lungs bursting with kisses I had tasted
My heart torn from whole to half by turning tides
Like a river in spate, splitting the land on which it flowed.

I would depart...my nails survive beyond the end
Like white relics of the scuffle with life.
Keratin proofs of fears.
Crescent with the dead skin of moonlight.

How long was a day in pain?
And how long a life anchored to that day?
How long the earth's orbit?
How long my breaths, beating a rhythm to this journey?

I would depart and not need to dwell on the answers.
I'd glide like a geese in the oiled sky of dawn;
a silent flight, a gentle landing.
My mind split softly like a dicotyledon, knowing new soil.

Perhaps later I'd float back here like a leaf.
Or return like great oak wood tree.
Shine like a star outside an open window.
Or perhaps be, forever free.

I knew that outside this cave was light
But I was scared,
for like a fluttering kestrel
I was impaled to the night.
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