Don’t Go In Alone

100 years from now I followed you to the edge of the city,
as I once did through mazes of green
the world was an hourglass, once again turning over,
and our instincts were sand in the tide

the frontier had again shifted,
from the forest that will be our home,
and the symbols for what they once called progress,
cast shadows of new unknowns

The city was now a graveyard, for words we no longer recalled,
innocent in its emptiness of purpose
while our senses were alerted by straight lines and box shapes,
as if by memories in our cells of danger

But how can you be sure,
each generation warned us as we wandered,
how can you be secure?

and you said, at crossings,
and around corners we turned,
that it feels like we’ve been here before

that the city was the shell of an order that had died,
and where we walked was in an echo of moments

and that there must be a path,
across the shifting of sands,
to find roots beneath what always fades

I met a girl once, who spoke from the stars,
who said everything has already happened,
that we throw all our attention,
all our worries into time,
and in doing, only delay our arrival

For you can plan where you will go, you may cross the whole world, but you wont find what you are seeking in only your delight
within the images that surface along the river of your mind,
through forests and mountains of cement

Civilization’s greatest sin
was to starve those who strayed
from systems that were always smaller than reality

and out of fear people remained fragments,
unaccustomed to letting go,
into the process, across the distance,
through the valley of the shadow and silence of their own inner reunion,

a journey not of miles,
but of merging, into moments

I’ve seen the destiny of nations,
asleep to the whisper of the wilds,
where and when their constructions collapsed all around them,
how they inevitably ran out of time,
why they were still chained,
entertained,
as doom came

I wonder if you were conscious of why we walked,
of why I followed you for centuries, into the dark

I didn’t know,
it was a process of coming home,
a road, a road of endless remembrance

Set your destination, the girl said, but don’t forget,
the only places we really return to are inside us

and to find yourself at home,
at each bend of the road,
is the evidence, of knowing, how vast you really are

Don’t go in alone, they always said of the unknown,
don’t let go of this rope, or you’re on your own

but it wasn’t fear that always brought us together,
all these lives, all these passing forms and places

what remained,
why we moved when we had to, I know,
was the feeling that we’ve been through this before

in this maze,
at these endings,
over the crest and collapse of dreams,
in city after jungle after generation,
reaching for roots, in what doesn’t go,
in what’s still there and between us when we’re alone

excuse me but…
have we met somewhere before?
would you walk
unto the edge of time,
until all humans together we find,
where we have all been returning,

since it began