An eternity and then some

"So this is how you died, in whispers that you did not hear."

- Ernest Hemingway, The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Now that you’re there

in that rarified air of

Kilimanjaro on a

permanent basis and

can no longer come

and go as us mortals do

don’t forget to give me

a sign one day

in that Nova Scotian

way of yours

that it really is better where

ever it is we are going

and that you’re still taking

measurements while

considering the blushed

sunrise

drinking a cup of coffee

as the mist from the

lower elevations form

a pearled carpet with

the crown of the tree canopy

breaking the mountain

shroud here and there in

a palette of cedar breath

green mixed with yellow

tinged linden bloom

     the souls of humanity

laid out bare before you

as one continuous motion

like waves arriving one

after the other on an

empty beach of boundless

time stretching out for

an eternity and then some

- For my friend, Jim Gillis…rest in peace