Outside
I'm glad to hear children playing outside
Their laughter permeating all walls and barriers
Breaking through the barricades
Tearing down the bleak tirades
Of shortening days and greater distances
Greater distances that must be spanned
With great tenacity, greater veracity
All contained within the sounds of children laughing
I place my head on pillows soft
Gazing through windows, mineral-flaked, aloft
The power lines cutting through the gray skies
Golden, red, and fading-green leaves
Holding on for dear life
Even though death has clearly already come
But has it really?
Doesn’t the tree still stand?
Its roots gone deeply into the life-giving land
Though the visibilities show death even still
Death cannot overcome life’s greater love-will
All this I see outside the window sill
The window not covered with stained interventions
Just deposits from the lives spent and gone
I lie here in the comfort of this throne
To overcome and to span the greater distances.
K, Duane Carter 11/23/14
