Point of No Return

Loading possessions
Sorting for the journey
Go and stay

My hands are steady
Heart is calm
The many miles between us
Cannot detract from who we are
          or might have been.

Would I change us
Cut rough edges to fit?
Like the perfect linoleum seam,
Flush enough to appear
Invisible?

No.

Life is the reward for
Where we've been, what we did,
How much we grew.

It's past the point of
No return.
Beyond Recalling
Energy gone kinetic
Outside the bounds of human shaping.
A wild God
takes a deep breath.

Bronc Riders, Gunfighters know well
That elongated instant
Where reality stretches like a placenta.
Time curves through a prism of
Adrenaline and joy,
Fear falls earthward
Like the innocence.

He deliberately slides the sixth
Shell into the empty chamber.
Turns away from the an empty glass,
Loop off the hammer
Feels the reassuring weight on hip
Tugs hat brim for
Perhaps
The last time.
Blinks to keen the eyes
Pushes swing doors outward
To clear the view of silent street.

Handful of horn, it's easy up
Right boot cuts a perfect arc
Over steel hard trembling
Hip muscles,
Toe reaching to embrace off stirrup.
Spurred foot falls faster
Now
Hips swivel to meet the leather
"Watch his ears, always watch his ears"

Just one more instant.
The wait is almost
Over.