- The Meeting (with birds..) -

Somewhere along the road
you meet up with yourself.

Recognition is immediate.

If it happens at the proper
time and place, you propose
a toast:
May you remain as my shadow
when I lie down.
May I live on as your ghost.

Then you pass, knowing you'll
never see yourself that way
again:
the fires which burn
before you are your penance,
the ashes you leave behind are
your name.

by Gerald Costanzo