for E.
On your CD, you sing of bright burning
spirits watching over love, ghosts come to
claim you. I still recall the day, learning
of their presence as you spoke of some who
watched us touch, kiss, hold, move through love rhythms
as we watched each other’s spirit open
day by night. I can’t blame you for schisms
in our psyches, for your losing hope in
our love, or how you had to swim away,
dive deep into breathless dark, having to
find phantoms before singing of their sway
over us. I only know loving you
couldn’t save you from the dark. How I’d pray
you’d find light; how I pray it to this day.
Roger Armbrust
Christmas 2001
