Eric Ashford Poet Free verse

Goners and the Becoming

there is an afterlife in these high branches
spirit bears 
watch as tracks appear and 
                                     vanish

men who walk around trees become women
when the tree is old enough
             to seed other wombs

days forgotten and missed
stack up against barbwire fences
                          the yet to be born
will bulldoze and
                 unstack

in Thailand we climbed the 200 stone steps 
in the heat of the day
monkeys chattered at us from ghost houses
     where incense rose 
for those who live last moments

the polished stone Buddha
            smiles
thanking us for the long trek
            tells us 
in a thousand languages
that we are but one step on a journey
               one that will not be recorded 
until we are free of the thought 
           of being

temple monkeys howl in approval

a power stations electrified guts
spills its timebomb seeds
        waits for the last fizzle of 
the goners and the becoming

lifetimes lay in state
under rusting  backhoes

generations glimmer
aluminum eyes buried deep
in the softening soil

we cannot recall what we were or foresee
                                what we can be 
only keep watching
the layers grow
the mounds rise and fall

as a world excavates time with its
       little pink paws

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