Shadows of You

I've wandered and moved
Crossed the great oceans
Looked on tallest mountains
Slept on strange soils
Spoken foreign tongues
Breathed the septic air
Of disparity
Rippling beneath the beauty
I've capitalized on

Will it be enough to think on you?
To lie in my bed in the little hours
That perch between dreaming and waking
Seeing the outlines of your sunken eyes
Circling the white and then the brown
Like big bright moons covered in cloud

As many autumns pass, you'll become
A memory--beautiful and dim

Your small, bare feet colored in red
Pointing and flexing
Kicking up trash on the ground
Lying on your back
Long bones laying to waste
On God's dry soil
Skin cracked and leathered
Tangled black hair
The corners of your mouth turned up
Towards the open sky
Eclipsing this partisan world in your grace

--For us
A living fossil of sorrow
--For you
Acceptance of your position
Keeps cries from your infant mouth
You want nothing
But to look up at the blue

Faith and reason
Mock me when the sun sets
On a world filled with contradictions
Answers only draw blanks
Leave me looking
Gasping for air
For peace from the ghosts of you