Eight Years Later

Eight Years Later

Leaving (2004) - Returning (2012)

So many things were wrenched away

I nearly died right then--

the light, the sky, the warmth of home

vanished in the night.

A deep dark void remained within--

the only thing not taken.

Darkness holding back my skin--

no heart, no lungs, no gut, no spleen.

And as the blind learn to hear

and the deaf to touch the world

I learned to feel within the dark

and how to breath again.

Now going back to sky and home

the most precious thing I take

is this gracious, spacious emptiness

within this guise of skin.

Twickenham

22 February 2012