night hinge
Stretch out my hand, like a plank over the trench, I figure
I figure how long the mounting chill will last
Frost forms on the open palm, I’m shadowed
I’m shadowed by the shadow of the past
And even back then, by that dark blotch I was followed
I was followed from the cradle, now I see
Now I see that from the cradle I was shadowed
like that man by his Mary on the banks of the Lee
And under that cradle, the empty space was hollow
the empty space was hollow, and the space above it too
It too, the blotch knew t’was the time to follow
Time to follow him, for whom the cradle has replaced the womb
The hand now stretches further than once has stretched the youngling
Stretched the youngling has, but not over the trench
Over the trench he did not know would once be freezing
and his grown up hand in its frost t’was about to drench
And the empty space above the trench was hollow
The trench was hollow too, just like the cradle’s dale
And all the way down there, the shadow it would follow
The shadow it would follow through the raindrops of the freezing gale
The freezing gale, it too was almost hollow
Almost, but not like that palm it frosted o’er
The palm it frosted o’er, it did, let’s see if tomorrow
the palm will not be ice and snow but flesh still, evermore
The empty space above my empty palm was hollow
I closed my greying fingers on it through the breeze
my chest rang like a bell, and it too was hollow
trench, cradle, hand, and at last the shadow
all faded in the freeze
flint perch