Poem - Unknown

A faintly whispering breeze

Coming toward me through the wood

I wonder why it frightens

I’m curious if it should

Unknowable ‘til arrival

Dark thoughts inside my head

Just wind? or cold Death’s touch

Causing tender leaves to shed?

No running, no escaping

Its ponderous crawl too fast

What is this terrible nothing

That has known me, in times past?

Noiseless cacophony crushes

As this bow wave sweeps me o’er

And I’m ripped from being, screaming

Like a child sucked from the shore

Reality crumbles ‘round me

The ground falls from beneath

That fathomless journey finds me

And I drift away, a leaf.

Randall Madden

August 5, 2014