A Driftwood Tale

by michaelcahill

I remember
years and years lodged fast
unmoved
a never-changing landscape
a predictable panoply of time's march

blankets of snow, laughingly cold
riotous Springs, bright colours all bold
then Summer, soon Fall
the end of it all
but always the start of it
once and again and over again

until

a flood and a slide
and a journey to sea
                      adrift on the water
           wonders surrounding
horizons and setting sun
but never a shore

and now ...

laying on this beach
the waves out of reach
drying and cracking

I've heard passersby
call me "driftwood"
the irony doesn't escape me
chuckles are few
for an oxymoronic existence

sure, there are stars at night
and children by day
            a dog or two
annoying birds
tapping at me
as though I were asleep

but what is this?
soft hands grasping me
cast into a fire

               wild dancing and song surround

                          I'm ignited

I expand into a million parts
and rise into the universe
I'm flying ... everywhere

I see it all now

even the forest

from whence I came