Distant Return

Stephen M. Shick

Here, I will be discovered and lost:
Here, I will, perhaps, be stone and silence.

—Pablo Neruda

Someday, out there, on a day like this
in a place I will never see,
where the clearing winds always come
after the storm,
I will arrive nameless
on a distant memory
carrying with me all the best
I gave back to this earth.
All the hope I found
scattered by others
along the roads
I traveled
All the courage that came
unexpectedly when you took my hand
and we cried for those
we could not save
All the love that exposed
the lies I told myself
about who I was
and what I was meant to do
All the faith that came to me
when I saw others
carry these things
into the future.