Water to Stone

Give me tomorrow,
to make you a memory,
a bible once printed
to the back of my lids -
Warned of forever,
fate undecided,
lives we might choose
times to forget.

I can’t say I blame you -
came looking for riches,
the promise of cotton
poured white to the fields.
I found you
no better (no worse) for your journeys,
(knew I was watching)
as night returned still.
There is a sunrise
beyond this sweet passage,
paths worn together
of others unknown,
cast as secrets to shadow.
Life becomes more -
than a past we atone.

Loners and lepers,
pastors and preachers,
sinners and sons -
They all look the same.
Presence resolved to the truth
of no better,
still I remember
every reason we came.

Silent this language
(of loving and leaving) -
tears melt away
as water to stone.
Who will recall the sound of my laughter,
long after this night
(to another) I’ve gone.