Airborne

for Gary

L. Dewender

Life on a page,

Without flesh—

Paper in the wind

The meat and marrow

of a man

The right word

For a man

Aloft and soaring

Whole sentences rain down

Upon faces that gaze

What wind?

What tense?

It was all silver glints

In sunbaked skies

It was shimmers and rolls

And fire in the belly

It was wise.

It is stilted and bereft

Looking for the word

For a man

Afloat

On course

And missed.

Such heart for it all

He captured and caught

Tamed on a page

With words

Or without

Glossy or matte

A moment in life

For eyes and hearts

For all time

Flying Dutchman of the sky

With your visceral lens

Now gone past the borders

And the great melding place

You leave us your colors

In the warm of this space

Where we, in our grief

Remember your grace