Leafy Branches

I walk away and leave my cares behind
me, drifting on the surface of a stream
like leaves that fall from branches. In my mind,

the water-song is solitude defined:
the perfect peace I touched once in a dream,
once walking. Could I leave my cares behind

and live, a desert anchorite? A kind
of hermit (thrush or crab), I'd seem,
a leaf upon a fallen branch. Remind

me: what's the answer that I hoped to find?
Was this the way I purposed to redeem
myself: to walk away and leave behind

the things that burdened me, an empty rind
from which I'd sucked the juice? The gentle gleam
of water leaving, falling, undermined

the banks between which I had felt confined,
dissolved the weight and murmured a new theme.
I walked on, carrying my cares behind,
the shade of leafy branches in my mind.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside