HEARTS AND MINDS

The shrouded figure sat

alone on the rocky slab opposite,

watching as the millions of heavenly lights

traveled in perfect silence

across the velvet depths

of boundless space.

No sound dared embarrass

the night, high upon the mountain's shoulder.

Its overwhelming absence

now pulled at his soul

with greater force

than that of the meager flame

dying before him

drawing his chilled body to its warmth.

The silence, overwhelming, utter

and consummate,

draped even the unrespecting stars

in somber, funereal bunting

as his reflections wandered softly

to the ponderous dark presence of the

mountain opposite.

Its solitude, immense and leaden,

merged like the confluence

of two inky rivers

with the dark reservoirs

of the deep cosmos above us...

a great and flowing mantle

of accepting, stoic peace

worn with perfect

and timeless, infinite composure.

The figure smiled a cold thin smile then,

for what are the concerns

of human hearts and minds,

mere sparks in the dustbins of eternity,

in the presence of perpetual

and imperishable

infinity?