Wilderness

Ode to my Father #3

Photo by Ty Crump on Unsplash

Wilderness

We’re lost in the wilderness,

Us three.

We can hear one another if we call loud enough,

But there are

No visuals.

Just thick green trees, all around,

One path,

Narrow and overgrown

Covered in vines and brush

Leading to

You know where.

I want to see you,

Dad.

I want to comfort you.

Reach out and hold you.

But you’re in another place now

Yet still here.

I feel far away

From everything.

From the city, from God, from love.

I exist only in this forest

On this path.

Where this trail goes there is no return.

Yet I want to know

How you feel.

I call out to Mom in the foggy forest

And she yells back,

‘I’m here.’

But she sounds so distant.

A hundred miles away.

This is the painful heroism of humanity.

What Camus and Kierkegaard wrote about.

This moment before the light is extinguished

Is all we have.

The candle flickers

And it’s gone.