BACK TO THE GARDEN

BACK TO THE GARDEN

(For Luisa, at 50) 

I don’t know either how to find/the way back to the garden; only/now there is everything to say. /Moths lie still on the mesh/of the window, light /being the project/never quite done. --- From “Lost Lyric” by Luisa A. Igloria, Via Negativa, 09-02-11 

In our peculiar roundabout ways,

we have tried to retrace our way

back to the garden, using words

as lanterns to light obscured paths

we hope to find again, know again,

walk through again till we get there. 

Like the still moths on the window,

we gather toward flames where

they glow warmest, to keep us alive

when falling off into dark nights

of hurt and doubt, of wordlessness,

finding ourselves betrayed. Muted. 

Light being the project never quite

done, have we not arrogated a task

of flitting about like fireflies, carting

fire to recondite places where lost

flower eaters long still for burning

bushes billowing with quiet words?

---Albert B. Casuga

09-03-11