The day I could have spent

The day I could have spent

Had I an early start

Beneath the morning clouds

Across distance apart

And with their company

I'd mark this place in time

The start of a New Year

With people of my kind

The trees in the farm fields

The trees in the farm fields

Are all in disorder

And the walls I have built

Are full of loose mortar

And the fences I’ve raised

Lost some of their pickets

While more trees have fallen

And lay in the thickets

Alone on a seesaw

Alone on a seesaw

Or just left there standing

Beside a balance beam

Or on a stair landing

Is the Universe tilt

Is it on an axis too

I’m somewhere off center

With emotions too skew

A learner not teacher

A learner not teacher

Though I am seeking Truth

I know little of it

Than I knew in my youth

Not close enough even

For me to feel its burn

I have only one Chance

And never to return

So what are these feathers

So what are these feathers

And where can my flock be

No brother or sister

Am I in the wrong tree

I question what I am

I’m not cedar waxwing

No one answers my call

When my heart starts to sing

Generations of birds

Generations of birds

Have passed before my eyes

See the Canada geese

In chevron pattern fly

Like mustard seed mountains

Details have grown in size

Though my life is longer

It's full of compromise

Here at the daily grind

Here at the daily grind

Searching for my escape

My heart, it wants to fly

My soul its waving cape

Like a kite and its tail

Like a bee pollinates

To be off and flying

Not wrestling with the fates

Hope for the infinite

Hope for the infinite

But details bog me down

Hard to reach the far when

Minutia swirls around

Cannot find the deep plane

By staring in my eye

Lost in the shortcomings

Of me, myself and I

And so I hide the hurt

And so I hide the hurt

Beneath my toughest skin

And I carry it with me

As I take it on the chin

When will I find release

Why do I keep my guard

Wouldn't it be easier

If it weren't so hard

The sun on Earth's shoulder

The sun on Earth’s shoulder

Is ending its presence

Trees break up the farm fields

With their magnificence

And in a small wonder

Where is home in the sky

Finding no answers just

Lonely for asking why