If You Must Come

                       (for Genevieve)

Beyond this world there lies another;

past shoal and brambles,

chokeberries and poison oleander

dark thickets and culverts

that lead nowhere.

I come that way myself,

but there are ways within ways

to go there: prisoned cove,

besmirched shore,

past birds covered with creosote,

into marrow of disquiet.

It is hard to get there,

harder to go,

but beyond,

barren scrub blooms,

brambles become sea thistle,

culverts unfurl meadows,

mussels hem shores.

Come, and you are named

anew,

you will have another light

about you, a filament

lit like a wick within.

For you, there will be no

dark absolute.

Beyond your world

there lies another.

I have done

what I can:

I have written you a map,

I have written you a path, 

I have written you a door.

If you must come,

come this way.