FREDDIE

For Jo

I felt a lonely crawling up
the road that is my spine
a quest went full and furred with love
became an angry whine
gravel raked my feet in sandals
in graveyards meant for those
whose spines were laid to rest and then
where groundhogs presuppose
a human bends to nature
in the land of spirits gone

a traveler in such tourist’s garb

kneels at a child’s head stone
she has no cause to reminisce
a babe she has not known
dead beneath a worn out stone
I felt a knowing part of her
was somehow as confused as I

by artists dead beneath the fame

by heat and coins and fire
and wandering lonely from
the crowd past graves of them
that once were loud
I felt a lonely crawling up
the road that is my spine
I stopped and took the offer from
my friend who knew I tried
we drank the water
carried on
across the solemn dead
and blistered, tired, map in hand
we forged on ahead