Constant North

Tonight I stretch and think of you
I put on my new boots, the watertight ones
A coat, a scarf, two gloves
And I go out walking north
As an explorer would
The wind puts its hands on me
Like a bouncer
And I travel bent
Into the total eclipse of winter

I don’t think of arriving
Or the journey
Or even of you now
Only the sound of the trucks passing
The fixed harmony of machines
Invincible gears
Eternal hums
Behind me, at me
Longing away
Gunshot beams staring forward
Like the possessed eyes of a painter

Awe at first threatened me
But now
Makes me feel safe and steady
Like I, too, am inevitable
A tardy, but inescapable, season
Only
That thing that was my light
You
Is indistinguishable now
Behind the blast of constant horizon
Oh I fear the machine of me
Will continue far past you
Into Canada and beyond
Wiping all memory of home away
As an obstruction on my windshield