The Approach to Lethe

On these open shores, Birds leave
And doors shut silently
Beneath the calm waterline, smooth pebbles shift
And something is lost
Unknown…

Straddling cold sand, unrecognized fists
Sift a galaxy of thought away;
Disreputable hourglasses that cannot
Be upturned; once gone
They stand redundant, contemptible…

I must follow the shoreline and skirt around
Dark boulders compressing my path
Before me the coast rises and darkens all, while
Behind me the creeping tide seeps in
Smothering the imprints of my passing feet
Was I ever here…?

Within the solace of a cave
A wandering zephyr offers warmth
And down there, somewhere, a spark
Unearths a golden treasure
In a trice known and then unknown…

Outside the Birds’ cries desist
And are heard no more
They have taken the scraps and left
Not silence, but something worse than silence…

But why should they know?
Surely only the Birds can ever know…?