POETRY by DUSTYBEAR - PG 9 - THE ONE

The whipporwhill... the plaintive cry... eerie... in the almost pre-dawn stillness. The air musky.  I hear a Husky  or perhaps a lone wolf such as I,  bay  in the distance.  Entranced,  I stand in the shadows and listen... Glistening dew,  sparkly in the early dawn light,  hangs like a misty mosquito net  against the low hanging branches  of the willows. A bayonet of sunshine shoots through  for a moment,  lighting up the murky hazy scene  between the willows in the bayou... new in daylight, yet old. Ancient in time,  I climb down from my perch and lurch roughly through the lush green... seen only by a few insects & birds.  Suddenly, a large bird rises majestically  through  the stillness, his wings beating stridently in the quiet morning air.  Soft breezes, perhaps from the gulf,  whisper and echo  amidst the lightly swaying trees.  So graceful in their sad beauty,  they hang... those willows,  from their full height  to the ground below... slow soft leaves, sadly hanging their mournful heads down  as if to frown all around me.  Such seeming sadness  in this place.  Ahhh, I know it well.  It's why I come here near this place... where time & space seems to stand almost perfectly still...quill pen to modernity.  There is an eternity hushed before me.  A fish jumps and then again, deathly quiet except for the occasional chirp of a cricket... a small bird, an insect...I suspect.  Ageless time is arrested here  but I fear it's not for me.  Time marches on, and on, and on... and upon my heart there lies a sadness  as deep as any those willows know. So it seems fitting that here near all this  that stands before me and surrounds me,  I wait...like the willows.  Nothing shows me hope,  and yet there might just be  somewhere for me, your face.  Your smile, and while I kneel   in the midst of this early morning gloom. Then suddenly, a ray of sunshine  breaks through.  A sign? ' Of  YOU?  Slowly I stand, in hand-to-hand combat  with the overgrown vines that hang down  from somewhere as if to bear the brunt  of my anger. Danger lurks I know, in hope.  I cope but barely...and squarely on my  bowed shoulders rests the element  of sadness.  It's almost madness to come out here, away from bright lively New Orleans  with its French Quarter... but in order to maintain my sanity,  my vanity, my center... I venture out into the bayou... but no YOU, still.  But here I wait, and like a microcosm  of  idealized emotion... the commotion that goes on inside of me  will not abate, and so I wait. The fog is beginning to lift here,  but not in me.  Carefully, I turn and begin the trek  back to my car and I see one lone star  still hangs in the new dawn sky. Why?  Is it trying to tell me you are here?  NEAR?  I fear I shall go mad, if I can't feel your love.  Above, the sky begins to clear.  A bird wings upward,  a WEEPING willow sways to the breeze.  It's still a ways to my car but not far.  Maybe I'll just wait a little longer.  I know something stronger than I  HAS to bring you back to the one  who loves you most of all.  Maybe by Fall, I'll know your love. COPYRIGHT 2012 by DUSTYBEAR ALL RIGHTS RESERVED