This wall is not merely bricks and mortar:
A thousand hands, flesh and bone, aches and cries, son and daughter
Reside pressed against this towering intruder.
Their fingerprints mark like signatures
Embossed across his cloak in blood red torture.
Leaving traces of souls unable to penetrate his formidable armour.
Before I go
Before I go and delve into the ocean
Of time lost and time forgotten
Sink into the unknown depths of unsound mind
Cast adrift in vague untamed commotion.
Before I go and wander
Through the twists and turns of lanes
Like veins of my aged hands-
A wild and organic maze-
Each boulder, each ridge, each line
Marks the lands of memory’s haze.
I gaze at this foreign landscape uncertain… dismayed.
I Wait
Before I go against the desert storm
That disperses each grain of sand
Trespassing thought with unwavering command.
Lost in meandering internal discourse
My thoughts drive the insurgent waves;
A tsunami of scattered and convoluted connections.
I stare
Wide eyed at my unfamiliar surroundings:
Unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar boundaries.
Where am I? Who am I? That is the unrelenting question.
I remain
In my room I examine trinkets, pictures and books to reawaken
Perhaps this will rouse the promise of adventures once taken.
I hope for that one single revelation.
Before I go, scrutinise this frail faced canvas once more.
Does this worn portrait express my life’s score?
The passages of time imprint upon the surface
Marking days of raucous laughter
Days of frantic and wild resolve
Days of hardship and tales of woe.
Before I go
Know that I was
Know that I am
Still here
Remember this before I go.
