Caution in Sight

for Kimberly Macdonald

based upon a meditation on Hadrian's Wall,
in the vicinity of Twice Brewed,
on the way to Houstead,
during a walk in February of 1990

the furthest reach of empire
remains noted
in the cut stone of this wall

I stand guard
atop this bygone fortification
high on the crest of a crag

I study the still horizon
and become imperilled

there
beyond
arises the dark storm
the ascending danger
curling at the world's edge

I steady my watch for you
in the folly of belief
will you simply materialize
in the brown grass
at the edge of the marsh
down below?

*

your appearance has yet to become clear

I patiently watch the still horizon
quite uncertain of your features

but it seems I do know the countenance
- an inheritance you may distinguish
one day
upon reflection
given time
to escape my routine markings
line by line
a free measure
imprisoning suns and moons
to remind you
of what I wish you to know
about destiny's spent heat
and yesterday's still radiant light

*

at the moment
this hand writes to you
just having paused
its steady knock knock
on a shadowed door

or is it lit?

sun or moon
I am required
to ask

who's there?

*

an agent
an agent who
gazes upon a star

self-luminous
gaseous
celestial
a body of great mass
whose size may be as small as the earth
or larger
than its orbit

*

I stand guard
atop this bygone stage
high on the crest of a drama
and study
the still horizon

all things transfiguring
at some insensible rate
only to be
in time
what they always have been

*

and you?

you remain

at this moment
not yet emerging from belief

not yet standing
on some furthest reach

not yet having forgotten
your name

and not yet studying the still horizon

endeavouring to identify
those very features
you always have seen

*

I stand guard
atop this bygone falsification
high on the crest of your history

I become imperilled
by the memory of light
rising from the world's edge
and breaking a moon onto the night

making clear your appearance
back-lit and alone
holding the future
on the still horizon
as handily as holding the present
borne by the unwise
for you to unwrap
like a package from home

February 23 1992