Cattails and Ashes

and usual preamble

Preamble

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” — Joseph Campbell

.

Cattails and Ashes

I wake up and look out the window
to the waning moon still high
at five a.m.—pale light lingering
like grief hanging above the trees
by strings of memories of you.
I wanted to lay beside you.

For twenty-five years I regretted
not holding you—as life leaked
from your body, into that moment.
You could not awaken to say
hold me, please, I need you.
Your breath rattled.

And yet I was afraid —
afraid to touch you,
afraid someone would see,
afraid of losing you to
where you were going.
Incapable, unable,
I watched our future disappear.

So the wailing wind howls,
the rain lashes out, beating
on the glass of a window
that remained forever closed.

Now, you walk in my dreams.
I can carry you on my
shoulders, in my sacred heart.
I am strong enough now to see—
the distance settles as I walk
with cattails and ashes in sight.


SLRCawaja
Oct 2025

.

till next week

Steven

.