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.
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