As if it were not me

 

Bronze and Blond I want deliberate
grain of summer, mind like pasture
Glow gathering
Shaped by wind and time

Tanned skin will of open air
Long hours communion with the sun
Gardens dug earth under the nails
sky full of buzzards humming my brow

Middle years in a wilderness of words
They cling to reality and spin it
Run rings of growth hidden in the timber
density encoded in destiny

Focused eye on letter word phrase
measuring the distance from meaning
catching scorpion metaphor in detail
holding the sting until it yields

Dawn prayer opens quiet command
The brain and muscle balanced
breath of gratitude
curating forgiveness

Ambition lurks under vast surfaces
creative channels course with currents
ideas and blood intertwine
Synapses at full charge fire

Under my thinning blond hair
beard lit by ripened age
almost whitening
hands shape soil and sentence

I am composed in daylight
stubborn repetition integrated
aspiration directed
Valley I fully inhabit

Aim follows motion movement and stillness
Somewhere obscure between humility and hubris
I watch this mastery growing
As if external, as if it were not me

yet it is!