Fleeing Autumn Skies

Innumerable rugged steps Across the broken concrete Of a desolate city Have lead me to this place Of spiritual dejection. No one’s disposition Is created in a vacuum, No one’s psyche is established In a single day, No one’s soul is known Outside the accumulated experiences Of joy and sorrow. My memories are woven Into the fabric of my existence, So many fibrous strands of struggle fray And dreams unwind like balls of twine. As a child, I fell in love With the dark-haired Cindy Ossowski Whom I was enamored of Along with best friends Scott Frederick and Paul Graff, Gentle Paul is now several years in the grave. On city park baseball fields I played baseball with Mike Melnyk. Mike now hobbles the same avenues of his youth on a cane Having suffered brain tumors And numerous disabilities. His old father survives by sheer force of will To watch over him. On dismal Detroit streets I’ve seen homeless men Freezing to death Seeking nickels and dimes As I stood in line at theater venues. I’ve suffered a marriage to fall apart That was certainly more my fault than hers, Unable to salvage love and kindness That should have been written in the stars With incomparable illumination. I’ve composed a thousand poems In the prayer-like night, But every meaningful word I sought to preserve Has escaped like birds Fleeing autumn skies. People vanish And best intentions fail to impress But there is no purpose to second guess The lonely pathways of a life Concluding on a dead-end street. I know who I’ve been And who I’ll remain As my dreams rattle skeleton-like Walking feebly in the mist-like movies That run continuously through my mind.