7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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Duncan Mason

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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Where are youFey angel,Quiet sister?What unkind breezesWaft you so farOff course?

Why do ISit in the long

Grass, aloneBy the lakeside,Staring at the skyFor signs of you?

Other birds,Other patterns,Play in the restless ether.

Zephyr of joy,Where are your whispers?Your merry call?

I yearn for your cry,The curve of your breastWhere wings once,Stretching across all myhorizons,Held the darkness at bay.

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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Shadow?Stain?Care worn crease of time?What kind of mark?s?Have you left upon my brain?Grafted?Scarred?

Striated?Seared?

If eyes,sunken so,record the shockednumb.How, then,looks a mindstricken, dumb.

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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Hawks overhead.Eagles.Geese.Cries from faraway.Freedoms lament.

Cry freedom,Cry,Solitary,The soul travellerLearns to unravelThe skeins of attachment,The bandagesOf possession.

From the constricted

Throat of a soaring being,Borne aloftDailyBy the winds promise,Comes the cryOf the free soul:

Anguished,Unappeased,FallingLike a solitary stone

To riseOnWing-thin wonder.

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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The other flyers are calling meacross the airways, the onceways in the sky.

The rising tide-pull of the worlds yearningdraws me closer to the north star.

A chill wind blows,unadornedby the cry of a friend.

Alone.

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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The feathersof othersoccasionally stir on the ground,reminding me of caw and cry dayswhen the warmthof kindred spiritsmaskedthe echoing silencethat lies just beyondthe last rippleof a leaving friendspassage.

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Bird skull,lyingin late autumns decaying garden,once housedall that was neededto soar above thissheening lakeor the larger lakebeyond the hill.Once exulted in afternoons ofsuntree glory.Knew breeze and cloud,

gust and gale,and where to hidewhen the kestrel soared.

Drove a body thatonce roseflailing, thrashingever higheron wings of honey air.

Air that nowchills toward solsticeand, smelling of snow,

gently rocks

empty eye socketsof this skulltoo smallto believe.

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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The magnet in the headAnd the magnet in the heartTwo poles pullThe silent seekerOff course

- a dangerWhen soaring at these heights.

The temptation to plummetIncreases exponentiallyThe higher the frost-rimedWings glide.

Soon feathers are ice.The head magnet,

Drawn north,By ancient command,Lures the unsuspectingHeartInto the talonsOf the night-dark EagleThat waitsOn the far side of dusk,The near side of dawn,In the placeWhere betrayalFeeds on the carcass of memory.

7/28/2019 Solstice Septet

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The owl of memory:Awake in the night,Eyes enormous,StomachDigesting the bones and feathers

And furOf friends.

The nest,A hammockOf fish hooksStrung between

An ash and a willow treeSomewhere deep in a hazel grove.

All around the nest,On the ground,Memories fading in ferns.

And, in the eyes- so far up in the boles ofskynight,Memories gleam:Of love and smiles,Of people once cherished andfamiliar,

And othersWho,Through no fault of their own,Painted the sky with wonder.

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ashaquila.com

words, paintings &photos by

duncan mason

ashaquila@yahoo.com