The legend
(this poem is currently in competition)

This is the letter posted on my door
to the quick and steady friend of my youth
the weekend I took Peter to the bus station:

I�ve gone out for a walk
I don�t think I�ll be back ever.

Say the stars have caught me up
took me shivering into the night
and you can see me smile down
or shimmer down.
That�s how you�ll recall me
in your distant places and
as you are grey-haired and wobbly
and out on your porch some year
with a creaky rocking chair
creaking
and the neighborhood kids� voices
fading with the sunrest
and summernight smells thick.
The stars will start
that summer night of old age
as they did all the ones before
(God always lets the sun rest
and he pulls people on through lives)
and you�ll recall the night
the night the stars took me up.

Of course
if you feel lonely
you could always phone a friend
perhaps the one that came back
so long ago now
from a walk that she took in the night
and that�s how you met her:
vulnerable and strong like an angel.

copyright 2001 by devon