False Spring

Come along, we'll ride together
Not far to go but it's too far to turn back
Voices are calling our names from the top of the hill
We'll raise a glass to appease them all
There, a stark and corroded memoria-
It creases the day into separate noon and night
How streaks of blight mar the long and rolling green

Comes the stride of the bold explorer
He made his name sailing 'round the golden horn
"I'll tell you that ashes are never envious-
The first to lose and the last restored"
A deal was struck and the room grew silent
Lending its weight to the new misgivings
In air too still to support any fragrances
How did time become so careless?
Where, the ivory stairs and the river of pools?
Where, the early blooms and the dawning?
It's hard to remember arriving here at all
Stranger shapes coalesce in the deepening light
An owl obscures, then steals, the sun
It's colder now than it was some moments ago