How Long A Moments Breath Be Poem by Frank James Ryan Jr...fjr

The worst you say is over now,
we hold each others hands in love
just like when we did three scores ago
at the Saint Ignatius High School Prom;
stunningly gorgeous, all eyes on you,
as we took the floor, the lights went down.
I remember the band,
I remember our kiss
as Sirius lit up your perfect smile -
yet, Life is filled with chance, change,
and Crosses- for us to shoulder.

For, today, you pray for Silver Steeds,
you swear you've never felt so free
of all Life's speculations
of the ''After-On'';
images... bizarre...
how you brought me to laughter
telling jokes about Death;
how they haunted me.

What you see, I wish to see;
My Mind's-Eye soon entranced
within your Third Eye sight
of prescience, confidence...Faith!
Aborting tunnel vision,
a renaissance of a million hours
of Life, Love...devotion-
you successfully embraced,
and I don't believe this paroxysm
be the drip from the pouch
that feeds your jaded Mind.

Still, the burning in my heart
cannot deem my faith opaque,
tho' I am blind to this complex landscape-
that dwells in the chimera
within the vast, deep housing
of all the inevitable's.

Why, I ask this chalice be so cruel,
why this chalice be your Cross, not mine,
to shoulder,
tho' my heart and brain throb and labor
like the man who helped The Christ -
I'll be your Simon of Cyrene, I shall!

Your eye's... more distant, now,
the magic elixir, your Emerald City,
releasing the last few drops of sleep
thru' your tired, weightless body.

Soon, lights no longer white and still
as you fancy in your lethargy,
the blinking drops of ocher glint
replace illusive overheads.

You wink at me, a crooked smile-
lips tightly pressed and dipped
like a fading crescent moon at dawn
giving in to brilliant Sunlight,
making peace with the furthest star.

You once told me Life
was just a moments breath,
you speak the words as if instilled
with Wisdom far beyond this plane,
as if you'd crossed Rubicon,
on your journey toforever there;
and for the very first time in my Life,
I feel helpless to you, empty of you.

Today you died,
and in doing so
you left behind
the Cross you bore-
so long, and hard
and I realize, now,
for the very first time
how long a moments breath be.


_________ F j R __________

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Frank James Ryan Jr. / FjR