This was the last poem I wrote while leaving Seattle for the last time,

My travels back, and forth were a burden on my body, yet I will not

give up the experience on the whole, the visual, and audio stimulation’s

were well worth it in the end…one of the many experiences in life that defines who

we are at the end of the day really…..each memory….a tapestry of our souls…

They ache

My bones of mortal weakness

That silent clock creaking as winter comes

The ache grows deeper in winter

Death giving you another twist of the knife

That sudden pain

The panic

Then relief

As futures fear laughs in your face

Your gaze graces the hills, weaving in and out of trees

Sliding back and forth as stream after stream roll by

Blazing orange as the suns setting rays hit them

That pain returns

As your mind whispers the mantra you’ve known for sometime

Known, yet refused to believe it

Refused to acknowledge you wont see these wonders of nature

The whispers grow as trees thin to houses then into buildings

As roads fill with car after car, and the crisp air grows grey

Heavy like your heart

Maybe he should listen to the whispers he’s been ignoring

A factory fire slips by spewing thick rancid smoke into the evening sky

Causing an early sunset

The whispers

He stops and closes his eyes

He could always hear better with his eyes closed

Those whispers, what are you saying?

Soft words like velvet do they caress his senses

As his eyes clench a little more than they should

His shoulders begin to hunch more than they do

As the constant ache in his knees fades like the crisp clear air of those woods

What do those whispers tell you?