NOT DEAD OR LONG AGO GONE

by shaun armando lawton 

  When you twist around and look behind 

to catch a glimpse of what you are 

 and wish upon a terrible blind 

and shattered star to get re-knit 

then travel back to a dream of old

 when shadows thrown by candle lit 

docks haunted our walks late at night

 into the woods on a lone cold mountain 

under moonlight in the wind

Out in the wild lucid stillness 

gracing the eye of the storm 

focused right on you staring back

 in its face locked pupils reflecting 

each other across infinite space 

Completing a circuit repeatedly

 in time and weaving a spiraling 

loop in a rhyme with the rhythm 

of blossoming open mutations 

starred adrift in evolution's wink

Do you get a thrilling sensation 

of wonder crawling up and around 

your own spine realizing in a moment 

of unforgettable awe that's the tail end 

of the singular aura that can only be said 

to be yours and mine spread across this 

universe we've found won't ever be borrowed 

for sometime tomorrow because the past and 

future don't exist only this present unfolding 

moment rolling on in the spectrum of our 

electric dreams can possess us fully 

to reconsider flexing the fingers

 of our body in a glove without seams

Not worn by anything other than 

what it is that we happen to be 

here at the moment conjuring 

metaphors in alphabetical code 

to flash the signals forward

and move on down the road

together not dead or long ago gone