No Going Back

A forbidding brick facade Fractured eyes of multicolored glass Somber, with no inner light Rose to a steeple that Gouged the sky and cast A hard shadow Across the blacktop. The burning sky made radiant the alley And a furnace glow filled the expedition Flushed with a fiery reflection of the Smoldering sun His face appeared fierce, a golden eyeshine Gilded his stare His soft voice was the tender truth of him ‘Everything I have is yours’ I remained lost in the forest of this new Reality Through the streaming crimson light, Through soft dusky shadows fast hardening Toward night Caught in cross tides of emotions Sinking slowly to a stillness In that instant a bird flew up Thrashing its wings Startling me From my dreamlike perceptions I looked for the answer Or an equivalent distraction In the rouge light, The mordant shadows Only the thinnest wound of the fallen day Bled along the far horizon The sky still dark The moon swimming in the sea Some secret savage splinter of his nature Long festering, now flamed to full infection ‘I passed that line years ago’ I said ‘For me there’s no going back’