gallows

I’m a creature of the past

Sometimes the present

Things I will do

with placards and posts

Rarely, I’ll be me

as a child will be

- no history

teacher of the lost art

of the tender heart

all life a game

with no shame

the spring sap of their walk

and abandonment of time

keeps you waiting

a love creeping away

to lift life’s tomes

holy fragments that last

and release worlds of grief

the gallows of your life—