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Night Swimming

I walk along the sweeping shore,

Counting stars that dance within

The shadow of the ivory moon—

Do they look up at it too?

Years and years ago

Like a ghost was in my shoes,

Someone sat where I do now

And prayed to God that life would slow…

The river trickles in the stones

Until it flows into the rapids...

Faster every day and yet

We can’t escape the current.

It drains into the lake of dreams—

Trapped behind that windowpane,

The glow of hopes and memories

Is tinted with a phantom green,

That silvered surface of this lake

Mirrors what the river bleeds.

I used to be so much afraid

To show my heart and face the grave.

Yet sweet exposure carries me,

Like leaves upon the summer breeze,

To finding peace upon the shore 

Where I will rest eventually.

Summertime is coming soon

With pining gazes at the moon—

Have you come to know of me

As well as I have known of you?

I smile while I cry again

For sacred souls that came and left.

In hopes and dreams of true intent

I cast my poems at the river.

The past we always carry on,

Lest if love was never bond,

Mesmerizing scattered light 

Refracted in the lake at night—

Capturing that moonlit sky:

The soul of greater humankind,

Midnight dreams are shining

From the lake of what is after life.

The drops of tears that sparkle

In the grayness of this sandy shore

Reflect my spirit perfectly

To show me how a Star is born.