Fifteen hours on the road
To be here
Sitting in the Atlanta airport
Just one
Of 100,000
Intersecting lines

I watched the flow
And replayed
Summer’s final act
The closing scenes


The last afternoon

Sitting on my parent’s porch
Watching my father toss and turn chicken legs
On the grill
Hands trembling
Just a little
As he sauced them
Cousin Billy’s Maine Maple
Basting sauce
He read me the label

So much said
So much left in silence
You can take my table saw
I won’t be using it again, he told me
I was leaving
Driving out at three the next morning
to fly back to South Africa
A table saw
What would the security staff say
How much excess baggage would that be
I probably need a house first, I said



Later

I held my father’s hand
In the darkening kitchen

I guess it will be next June, he said
The curtain of winter hangs
between then and now

Time and fog
They blur the edges
Leaving is not an act but a process
Thinning,
Step by step
Fading
Until just an outline
Then a hint
Then a memory remains
Space remembers us
Holds our place for a breath
Then sighs
Releasing
Like a child blowing dandelion silk
out and out
and
gone



Later still

As dusk gathered the shadows near and close
Leonard Cohen in measured cadence crooned
Harsh and smoky sweet as whiskey
The old house and me
Settling toward night
With the memories of summer
Only lingering memories of summer
Flash like fireflies
And then they’re gone



I remembered

Our last island night
Looking north
Lightening
Casting long spears
Jagged, streaking to the sea and
over the mountains
the wind boxed the compass
came west then north then east.
Sharply wrinkling the darkening sea.
Sheets of rain
Wet the sun warmed rocks
Where we drank sparkling wine
And cast our lobster shells to the sea





Finally

in the hours before dawn
My footsteps creaked
Through the old house
My presence already fading.


And I know you want to hold on
I know I want to hold on
Cause leaving is
Such a final act
Headlights shine the road ahead
Tail lights red behind


And it’s only for a moment
We’re remembered
Only for a moment
We fill this space
This me
This you
This us
Just a moment and then we’re gone
Blown away like dandelion silk
Flung out like dandelion seeds
Spun out and gone with the breath of a sigh