Ahead

The gull leads us down the beach

In false starts, runs, hesitant hops,

Picking dinner from the sand.

With an exaggerated screech

When we get too close, it stops —

Swoops ten feet ahead and stands.

Try

The man walks along the lake,

His hair and clothes wild, unkempt.

He’s lost all that he could take

From life and love, and the attempt

To understand the meaning of I.

The waves wash up to his naked feet,

As if to urge him once more to try.

Where the horizon and the skies meet,

He sees himself, a constellation,

So far away, fleet and improbable,

Drunkenly spinning concatenations

Of entropy and incessant babble.