There among the broken shards
Among the ruins of ages
Among the sins and glories
Among the ancient and newborn
The forefathers of our time
Among the cobwebs of the mind
And its dark caverns
The path you might have travelled
In times of yore
There the mind keeps score
It sears the layers of time
The new bulk of atoms
That formed over old
It connects the seer
To a former place
With feelings of another life
Sometimes strong
Sometimes week
Always a message
A code that connects
And translates
A place in the same space
As the new that is now
Two places at the same time
Sometimes more
If you are willing
Or not
But if you are
You will see
And feel more thereof
Than ever before!
There in the dark shadows
Among the silver silhouettes of ancient trees
The moonstruck alabaster stones and crosses
There stood I alone!
Fearful
Anxious
Threatened by my minds convulsions
Into an abyss
Of angst
I hear the last supper bell in the far distance
Candles and light being dimmed
In curtained and shuttered windows
Quit now the noise of children playing
It was all quiet
Very quiet
The murmur of the brook nearby
And the breeze
Moving the Iron Gate
Squealing in its hinges
The dark shadow of the ancient castle
Laying across the path home
But I was alone !
The graveyard and the moat
Separated me from the winding road, and the forest,
I knew that road well,
But at night it was different
Lights and shadows played tricks on the mind
And hastened the late traveller
To hurry his journey
I had a while yet before I would,
The clammy wet bone in my hand
Had stopped me in my work
From digging the moist ground
And replacing old with new flowers
It was my assignment
Every Wednesday
To take a fully loaded wagon
Up that long trek
To the castle cemetery
A long pushcart
It was fine in the daytime
There were always many visitors
A culture
Or a requirement of such
Not that it wasn’t beautiful
It was a showpiece of artistic pride
Better then any local flower garden
Yet when the sun set
And work demanded extra time
A burden the master had lain often on my shoulders
At fourteen it was a heavy burden
But it was common
An apprentice gardener had to work hard
Usually twelve hours a day
On Saturdays, and on many a Sunday
This Wednesday as any other
Left me with many unpleasant forebodings
And heaved upon my mind
Much torment
Which in turn would translate in nightmares and day mares?
Yes I threaded Wednesdays, I sure did
And here again was I
Trying to collect myself
To transgress abhorrent thoughts
And weakened limbs
I placed the bone back with trepidations of finding more
And sculpted my last flower arrangement in a hurry
Now I had to go all the way to the far dark end of the graveyard
To fetch another can of water
It would not do if they were wilted the next day
For the master would fine me with some unpleasant task
For my transgressions
Heavy heartedly and with a furtive look all around
I collected my courage
It did not help
That I had scared a raven off its sanctuary,
I had not seen him in the dark
And the loud caw and the upward lifting wings
And that whoosh sound
Brought my trepidations to a new high
Minutes before my departure
And walking now in almost pitch black
Toward the gate
I heard it creak
And then again
As if someone was trying to come in or leave
Panic struck me
I was frozen still
My arms were shaking holding the cart
I could not see
The moon now hiding behind a cloudy sky
Terror crept through my mind
All the ghastly stories we had told each other as young boys
And all the ones the adults had berated us with
I stood there
I was shivering now
Did not know what to do
I waited and waited
Nothing
Then nothing again
And on a dare
I darted toward the gate
Hoping all the while that it was open
Praying oh please be open
Grandma watch over me
I never seen the gate
At least I don’t remember
I ran three marathon miles
Down that awful serpentine road
Ghost passing me by
That couldn’t catch me
I was to fast for anyone
A little doggie running across the road slowed me down
And as I passed the first little church
I had entered town
And followed the brook alongside
Rush down the road
Down, down,
To where the railroad tracks where
And into the bosses arms
He was a tall handsome
And broad shouldered man
He had caught the cart
He seemed to know
And smothered me tightly in his leather apron
There I shivered for a while
Then he would laugh out hardily
Holding me at arms length and looking at me
When I started to smile he led me go
Then he said laconically
All done
And when I knotted still clump
Pointed to his wife’s calling
She had brought us a hot cup of cocoa
We sat down to discuss the next day’s upcoming events
It was now ten and I trundled off to the third floor bedroom
A lonely shuttered place
A place sparsely furnished
With a bed
A ceramic washbasin
A tiny woodstove
And some old dresser
The ceiling was sloped low overhead
And the light of the moon was washing the wall in striped patterns
I prayed
That I would sleep
For six o’clock would come early
And the iron wheelbarrow
Was always twice as heavy
If bad dreams had disturbed my night,
Not that they weren’t heavy enough
For a spindly little teenager
But the boss was a kind man
Sometimes he would see
And leave me be!
31/10/2007
at 12:12
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