Will you meet me
I want to lie with you
On the moist summer grass
Of the hilly graveyard
Beneath the keyhole stars
Above dim bodies braided with the earth

I know a place that can be seen
From no road
Every word whispered
The sky framed by trees
Schooner clouds unmoored and
Leaning into the harness of the night
Backlit by pinpricks of the best light on earth
The kind that took lifetimes to arrive
Finally

Will you meet me
I got it back
My will to live
Thought I had lost everything.
But now
Now
I want to forgive those who tripped me up
And helped me fall
And most of all
Myself

Will you meet me
In the garden of the old stones
Tender words on fire with
Slow dusty age
And sweet rage

Life came flooding back to me somehow
Was it Vincent who opened the gate and said
If I had it to do all over again
I would paint just one more canvas
Before I shot myself in the chest
Barely missing my heart
And dying anyway
(Theo thought for a little while he was going to be okay)
(His brother was lying in bed smoking his pipe when he arrived)

Will you meet me
I have decided
Knowing I am to be buried here
Beneath the open air
That life would be a mistake
If the two of us did not lie down
First
Rest together
Just here
For awhile
Breathe
While we were still

Selah

And stare up at the shifting shapes
(I can see your eyes now) as we
Try one night on for size
Drop the coin-operated moon
Into the slot of your heart
(Roll)
Bewilder together at not only
What might have been
But most importantly
What is

Will you meet me
I want to lie with you
On the moist summer grass
Of the hilly graveyard
Beneath the keyhole stars
Above dim bodies braided with the earth

. . .

copyright 2000, Linford Detweiler