our dark pages

time spurns the convenient
yet an exigency haunts
defying me
so I board metro on a whim
when I decide to depart,
I’m near

I start to walk along the mall
considering the sights
where monuments tell
surrounding, as if to keep,
are the halls
where time will tell

I feel myself drawn by
an oncoming intent
and I come upon, before me,
pages
they stand side by side
from dark portend
and beckon, draw near
this was no whim

it is quiet
but for the cars
rushing the calm
as the breeze
in nearby trees

open before me
stands your page
and I see you
your story reaches
as if to tell from the dark
taken aback, I step back
I tell myself,
to see what those who stand
with you would tell
but as I do, my eye trains
intent on you
hostage to your name

then the clouds come
you infuse them
and their rain that falls
to distill my years.
my eyes focus anew
though they glisten

I see, an apparition
from the dark
a spirit holds within
I am here
but this name within I am not
it does not belong to me
I have no place here
an outlaw ransomed
by sacrifice
once disdained
a spy
secret among the sacred
I have no right

but though this
wall could deny,
our dark pages
invoke

yes, your name is within
to hold
not to keep
though not mine,
it defines
atones and reminds
though I come after,
you have put me before
because of this
I have no place here
yet my place accedes here

so here I belong
I belong to you
and I go in your name

written by Scott Schoffstall
December 29, 2012
all rights reserved
Poetic Sojourn

Tags: creative writing, poems, poetry, writing