I place my hand to the Wily Winds
and shutter impending adversity
retreive courage from its own firey ashes,
cleave hope from negativity splinterings.

All this because of you.

I have walked in darkest night
guided by the slenderest sliver of faintly light
I've cast my net upon unwelcoming seas
crashed onto rocky shoals
capisized my dingy
lost my compass
drank too much
hurt myself and others
and yet
emerged from the darkest caves here lately
lit only by
your love of me.

I've stood naked dressed only in my own dark resolve,
I've been blinded by my own arrogance,
my own destructive bent
my finger nail clingings
to wild dreams
and depressive stints
yet
surpized my self
when I found a place to stand
here and now given me by you.

Lay me down with gratitude
for graditude so often
has to be born from Humility's Bludgeonings
and Life's Reckonings
where kindness now has blanked out bad memories
I am better off without.

The Ultimate Folly, and there are many,
is to imagine that life can be lived alone.

So take this battered hand
as you have so often in the past
place upon it that gentle touch
allowing it to receive
my last and final sacrament.
Sorry
it has taken this long
and has to be received

on this my Dying Bed
not sooner
when it could have had
longer life
and more meaningfulness.