Why one day in the future

When right now

You can imagine a painting 

In reverse, the careful movement

 

Of color stitched slowly away

To white? In any beginning

We shouldn’t take issue

With what’s to come unless

 

Of course we want the mind

To derail into a place free

Of worry, a shallow

Body of water at first, 

 

But deepening eventually

Into an expansive reach

Toward an island of rock 

Occupied only by a lighthouse

 

Emptied out years ago but back

On the sand looking out toward

The light, your body overcome 

By the urgency to drift off 

 

While standing up, the waves 

Too slow to carry anything away, 

Too slow for any northern light

To find its way to the bottom.