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FRIENDS AND STRANGERS

They pass by, gently,
In one almost unnoticed moment slip
Beyond our mortal reach,
To seem so senseless ...
If such is destiny then where's the place
Within this short life for
Compassion or for grief?

Memories still haunt ... if they could only speak!

Be here but briefly
You conjured souls of long forgotten pasts/
Remembered yet-to-be's.
Sleep with me sweetly –
Upon my oath, had I but time to dream
I'd know just where to find
The visions that I seek,

Caught within the trap, of echo's prophecy,

So deep, so distant,
Where I shall hide myself from emptiness,
Some ocean far from home;
Some silent quadrant,
Uncharted wasteland, undecided fate,
Its challenge: try my chance
Against the great Unknown.

After all this time, I find myself alone,

"For we are all ghosts,
Each to the other shows his image as
A blank, unheeding stare."
So spoke the shriver,
Yet I heard nothing, looked beyond the pale
of worldly ends, quite through
The man, as if not there.

Strewn with ashes of my past, the wind's path wafts me where

Friends and strangers
Are tumbling leaves that pass by, criss-crossed lives
That touch and float away.
(1978)
tumbling leaves
friends and strangers
photos: Stephen Alsford

Created: November 17, 2014. © Stephen Alsford