do you ever remember?

ten long years in a sweeping cascade catch me languishing in houses my grandfather would have laughed at with a catholic carpenter's laugh the predator still strides with vile inevitabilities dripping from its teeth but it doesn't seem to carry the weight it used to i welcome the gloom of night when only one eye sees as well peering back on a phantom procession with a wisdom rendered meaningless by this crystal waterfall i've fallen by there was the summer: a raimentof the sun and earth when speaking in husky tones of youth and love and future deeds a tangible quality to the air that pulled our feet closer to the ground sent our heads sailing like secret weather balloons there was a gnarled old black man walking an invisible dog in the park for sixteen dollars a month his hands had giant weathered knuckles palms that where white as mine he laughed honestly like a younger man every time the sun came out from behind a cloud there was the swamp with all its raised roots and putrid life bubbling well into the night like a witch's cauldron vague shapes shifting in the glimmer of st. elmo's fire there was the house where slaves had once flinched at footsteps cowering behind thin walls and covering each others's mouths the columns rose in front like proud bastards of greek architecture and again my grandfather standing tall with hands on hips laughing a southern belly laugh ten years gone in a cruel whirlwind no way of knowing the ten to follow would be so much to make me wish the song was overThis is for the South, and all of the strange old ghosts that live there. Written September 21st, 2001 © on Oct 12 2001 09:01 AM PST   18 • 0 • 10