Poem –

No one can find this location but myself.
It’s really not much to see. A cluttering of
leaves and trees. However, this image
knows me intimately. I stood in the woods,
alone and hurt and leveled my sight upward;
capturing my state of mind in a single image.
I see a number of memories in this photograph.
I feel an upcoming loss, with the practicality of
hope that’s been arriving in waves and leaving
me flat. A month long roller coaster teasing finality
as though it wishes to torture not only the host,
but all attached. Life is funny and hard like that.
I can handle the transitions while I continue to
pray for his freedom from pain; a curse which
claimed him from childhood on, as though an
unseen hood floated along with the best of his
talents only to dampen each achievement with
clutter. We’ll see what’s to come as ‘this’ will
never happen again, not even the leaves.

-M. Taggart