The Secret

The secret

In the margins and just out of range
Lies the secret wisdom
Always hiding just beyond imagination
The answers to all our wasted frustrations.

Snowy borders blanket the hills
Covering the earth with an icy chill
The trees stand silently covered in ice
Black branches
Clawing at the gray sky.

Dead men’s bones under the ground
In the place of their father's sleep
Without dreams, hope or love
Forgotten as time passes above.

Their friends and loves unremembered
Conversations and moments dismembered
Asleep in the darkness of mystery
Adrift in the sea of history.

The night has fallen like so many times before
Light slipping into sleep behind the shore
Death has come to his appointment
Never late or hurried in his deportment.

No man has power over breath
No man has power over death
We cannot restore what is lost
Even though we try
And try again.

We live, we work, and we buy
We love, we lust, and we lie
We drink yet are thirsty
And we eat
Yet are hungry.

I cannot give back what I have taken
I cannot give back the love I’ve shaken
My heart beats on underneath my bones
Dark as night
And cold as stone.

My bones are tired
They long for water and peaceful rest
Counting headstones and adding up the dates
Drifting in a sea
Of a thousand secret fates.

We think we can control the times
Cheat death and the colder climes
We plan and build
But always die
Never considering
The reasons why.

We shall never know the secret of death
Or how the unborn
Are given life’s breath
We can never know the mystery
Of the oldest secret in history.

In the beginning life is given
In the end the body is taken
Asleep, but not forever we dream
Only for a time in the larger scheme.

Asleep on this earth we walk
We trod the snow in a nightly walk
Bloodless fingers white as chalk
To the bonfire and its flaming stalks.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring
Counting the hours by the church steeple ring
Someone will die and another will live
One tempted to steal and another to give.

Interlaced in this pleasant scheme
Warmed by the alcohol in the mugs steam
Talking with friends and my love
Our words falling silent in the cold above.

Talking and laughing we pass around the jug
Thinking of this moment I fill again my mug
Outside this moment and far from our ears
Is the secret of love, pain and tears.

Some of these people I’ve known for years
They love me anyway in spite of my fears
Others I haven’t known for very long
But friendship thrives where hearts are strong.

Our breath hangs for a moment between the two of us
A friendship and love grown many years in trust
Hanging for a moment the vapor falls away
Like the lives of the dead
In an instant gone away.

I stand there and look
At all my friends around
And silently I pray for the future
Remembering this moment
As I feel time pass by
Hoping God will bring us back
Many times before we die.

I will take nothing when I leave this place
Naked as I was when I was born
We must all go home when the time is right
Called to the secret
That we can’t question or fight.

It is late now
And we must part
But tonight the goodbyes are different
With a knowing look
And a sideways smile.

I pray for them as I trudge across the snow
That I could help them to remember
And perhaps to know
That nothing else is as important
As love and friendship.

That the spirit is with us
No matter the day or year
With us in laughter
And with us in tears
One day all together again
Reunited forever.