Certain there still could be a great deal
of tasks, goals, and aims to reach
he walked off the end of the road
shadowed by the perennial trees
and their gentle umbrage.

It was not the first time he so ventured
on a path he so well knew
that it ended near the asphalt way
solitary into the dark.

Alone for decades, he could see the last
bed upon which he would rest
a criminal of some sort no one would be there
his eyes turned to a heaven where perhaps
not a soul would await him.

What could he do next to spread his care
when he was aware his kisses fell to the void
but perhaps find a place to slumber in the grass
as the river sang and the deer danced.

Watching a hand move as it had so many times
another foot take one more step forward
into an icy realm in which his life remained still
he had to ponder his next attempt
to survive the impossible.

His answer simple, “done it all, time to go”
it was late after all, and most asleep
would not notice his departure
unmarked in the morning papers if perhaps
even a note mentioned an unidentified spirit
seeking its way home in the deep forest.

…

Poussin is a professor of French and World Literature. His work in poetry and photography has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. Most recently, his collections In Absentia, and If I Had a Gun, Half Past Lifewere published in 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Silver Bow Publishing.