Death is just a crook

When sleepless I composed these lines of verse in my head  

            as if playing chess pieces blind

carefully moving words   no phrase too terse

to check the flow   like paring apple rind

in a curling helix-like state of mind

time like a spring

compresses dreams in plaited strands that bind

to positions played long ago   ticking

into eternity   self to play thus going

on

awake I review these lines and try

to plumb those pools of reverie I fished

with barbless hooks that caught not what I wished

but snagged seaweed in my subconscious mind

detritus of times forgotten times missed

when brash and bold once long ago   unkind           

memories from long ago flicker in my mind

Coffee’d   pick up the threads of life

the mind must clear   must curl up in its nook

to comprehend in absences mistook

more often than silence is   as meaningful

that life plays to win   death is just a crook

in the road   seen moves ahead by careful

players who know a void is a void is annul

© Dick Russell, 2013