‘And then it was time to start uphill toward another morning and another home.’

I have never walked uphill toward morning
morning, to me is always on the downhill
the easy coast homeward after taking
full advantage of the solace of nighttime

Heading for home, from the darkness
sun on a new day’s start as another fades
even a bad night heading to another day
cannot dim what passes for reclamation

I am not Saul on the road to Damascus
there is no conversion, and while I claim
epiphany it is what I experience every time
I walk the night away like it was an old friend

Which it certainly can be claimed to be.
I am a friend of the night, no fear in me in
what lies in the darkness; I live in the light
frolic in the darkness, letting my soul loose

Around campfires, I was the one always
rolling his eyes at what passed for macabre –
tales told breathlessly, anxious young souls
wanting more – “And then? And then?!”

And as I start on the downward swing home
tailwind, momentum, gravity – take your pick –
pushing me onward it is home I always see there
just in front of me, at the bottom of whatever hill

– Mark L. Lucker
© 2020
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