March to the Sea: Act One – Dust to Dust
Scene one - Savannah
I stand on the shores of Savannah
The ocean behind me, my gaze to the ground
The wind blows in, it moves the heart
I don't want to look, to see what I have done
All things are made clear in time
I have to look, I lift my eyes and
The smoke is thick and low
She stands ahead of me, her back to my fore
A silhouette of agony through the curtain drawn
I don't hear her sobs, I cannot see her tears
I don't know the hurt, I cannot feel her fears
All things are made clear in time
I have seen the ending, I rub my eyes
The smoke is thin and moves
Her arms have disappeared, her head hangs down
She's given her hands to her face and mouth
They support her heaves, her vents, her jerks
They catch the cries, they catch the hurt
All things are made clear in time
I watch her destruction, I scratch my eyes
The smoke is lifting and free
The view has opened and now I can see
The details of her dress, the shadows left behind
Beyond her still lays a desert from the past
A wonderland once, now wasted by my hand
All things are made clear in time
I cringe at what I've done, I cut my eyes to close
The smoke has risen above
Beside her stand the angels she nursed
They hold to her legs for comfort outside the why
They look to me, eyes begging for the how
My knees lose strength they give to the ground
All things are made clear in time
My cries are silent, blood fills my eyes
The smoke is gone the air is clear
and then…
Scene Two - Bitter
"We'll be gone when you come around"
She tells me hiding her deepest thoughts
I nod my approval, she's gone now - I know
"We'll be gone when you come around"
The words are cutting, the sharp end so blunt
I hold the wound fresh from the rip it made
"We'll be gone when you come around"
The winds pick at the dust
In shadows hide the answers
Hidden from her wondering eyes
Beneath the ground I buried
Reasons for this crusade I start
And in the month of Caesar
It all began to fail
Her questions binding my tongue
Her rants so loud in their quiet sting
The dust crosses my feet
She turns north to move
In slow deliberate strides
Never pausing, never turning
She leaves the dust for me
And as I watch her go, the winds begin to shift
In loud bursts of anger she cries
"We'll be gone when you come around."
The dust settles in front of me.
Scene Three - Currents
Silence.
The wind is calm, the waves are dead
Listen - the sound is wrong
The thread is thin, the water cold
The tides are quick
They suck me down
Silence.
The water above me
The water below me
The water around me
It beats; it tears; it washes
It heals -
Silence.
The pain has not come.
The blood is washed away.
I am hard; I am weak; the penance
Does
Not come.
Silence.
The day is done
The currents pull
The currents push
I want to let go
I want to let go
Silence -
Is broken by
The laughter I hear
In my dreams
My head above
I listen - the sound is right
Silence
No more. It increases
The laughter louder but distant
It fades; it comes again
I drag myself from the sea
In the direction of its beckoning
Silence
Is left behind
The wind howls its hidden blessing
A small shadow crosses the ground
The dust is mud; the smoke is gone
The wind is hard, it sings my song
The pain comes now in full
Gripping, tearing, cutting, bleeding
All things are made clear in time
The little shadow fills my eyes….
March to the Sea: Act Two – Of State and God
Scene One - Aisles in the Road
In the beginning of the end
The clocks were wound to show
My thoughts of when I was there
With her in bliss and flow
Behind the hidden thoughts to see
I heard the song she wrote for me
I laughed with her along the hill
Giving verse and prose until
She sang a different song that went
Up and down and up again
We walked the aisle
We danced the dance
We said our vows
We lived our trance
And in the marriage quarters hear
I sat and wondered with my fear
If it was really time for me
Or did I rush the state to flee
The lonely life I had and lived
To no one else I was to give
And in the vows that I had made
I lived with goals of the kind
That push the favors to and
For the love that stays the mind
She sang her melody loud and clear
She sang it so that I would hear
The love she called out to me
The love that I had lied to see
I worked to break the curse I made
In hopes that I would turn again
Fool I was and fool I am
Forever giving to the same
I did not stop to pause and taste
The fruits so luscious in a name
I wept my joys and cried my fears
I rotted in my cell for years
For I was proud and brave to sleep
In the house of ours to keep
I held her hand, and she held mine
Unaware I marked my time
Scene Two - Left Turn to Everywhere
In the winter storms there is a call
If you listen to the sounds of snow
You will find the words of God
Whispered faintly in the wind
That is where we found that place
Inside the dark hidden rooms of light
Each one searching for the questions
The answers left behind
(A break, a crack, a split, a fracture, a tearing)
In the winter storms there is a breath
From the north and to the west
That leaves its calling in the bones
That is where we found the right
Hers to mine and mine to hers
A single movement left all behind
She ran and ran and ran and ran
And left me holding the last whispered thoughts
(A gathering, a pairing, a meeting, a living, an embrace)
Of God and soul and spirit and heart
And time I had forsook
I moved to repent, I moved to give in
Where the mistake fell close
Home -
Had been abandoned for fear
Scene Three - Climbing
To the south I moved with desperate aches
To pace each step in time
Moving fast to beat the slow
I began to hear the rhyme
With the storms all passed beyond the fringe
The clouds cut to the land and bridge
The winds that tear across the hill
To carry with them gentle chills
Behind my last good deed they blow
Making way for coming snow
She heard my call with joy and said
"Hello dear husband, rest inside"
With cold warmth that she hid away
"Your feet are broken from the ride"
My journey done I gave way to sleep
The broken angels cried at her feet
The deal was made between us then
To gather all for life again
We made the mark and had a will
The darkest hour marked its feel
Years had passed and days gave way
Minutes putting love at reach
Seconds made the movements fast
We built a hollow nest to each
The song repeated each day at last
Never slowing, always motions past
And in the final verse it rang
Laughing coyly as it sang
Beating to the rhythm gave
It failed its mission in which to save
Here the story takes its turn
Giving way to present tense
Here the voices change their tone
Here the ending will dispense
Had the longest days been made
With colors bright which never came
The laughing would have come again
The brightest words to say begin
It did not happen in the right
Her song fades quickly to the night…
March to the Sea: Act Three – The Moons of August
Scene One - Unbalanced Hands
Silence.
The summer calm opens wide
The air kneels behind the sun
The leaves are at attention
The petals are erect
The grass bows to the dirt
Silence.
I stand on the edge
Questions yielding nothing
Knowing what is to come
Knowing the hate will commence
Ready, set…
Silence.
Numbered days have ended
Countless hours forgotten
The minutes turn to seconds
Time reflects the motion
Ready, set….
Silence.
The clouds have come
They rise above the heat
The rain will cry
The rain will mourn
One step in the -
Silence.
The edge is drawing its conclusion
The air is peaking out
The sun is saying goodbye
Dusk is moving about
Time is on my side again
Silence -
Is interrupted by the sounds of
Electric movements in the sphere
I move to make the end
I step in the direction of -
The sound is wrong
Silence
Leaves me now
I step alone to make the end
The ring alone it sells
The desire of the mind
The heart of one betrayed
The numbness sets its unborn head
Across my breast when I pause
All things are made clear in time
The ending from the edge now falls
Scene Two - Burning Too
"I don't want this anymore"
I tell her as she stares
The flames light the torch I hold
"I don't want this anymore"
The flames grow higher
Her tears fall in quiet drops
"I don't want this anymore."
The dirt around crawls unheard
The first step is the hardest
Then the ease takes its course
The heat from the burning dirt
Rises up to fill my lungs
I march along the roads of time
Each mile is given up to flame
I march with quick deliberate strides
My words the damage makes
The dirt is crisp, its pain unheard
To the east I move until the shores I see
The past is dead, the moments gone
Time moves absent of its heart
The deed is done, the sun has slept
I stand at the edge of Savannah
My back to everything I've burned
"I don't want this anymore."
The dirt lies quiet and black.
Scene Three - To end is to begin.
(the little shadow fills my eyes…)
In the past of my heart I have been the sun
In the present of my soul, I whisper to the moon
"I have watched events so large, I have created one so wrong"
As I kneel to the west, the shadows begin to grow
All things are made clear in time
The pain has healed my eyes
The little shadow moves closer to me
The moon responds in earnest, calling out to me
"Rest inside the healing hands of life and hope and joy"
He bends closer to me where I have crawled,
"The sum you want, leave behind for time to keep"
All things are made clear in time
The shadows reflect within my eyes
The little shadow comes on to me
The words have left me now, the thoughts I had are lost
Intentions made again and again, they flee the dying lands
Cinders cover the past forgotten, gentle smoke moves east alone
I take my stand and step to claim the light along the soil
All things are made clear in time
The shadows leave one by one
The little shadow walks with me
The moon draws its eyes and turns its head to sleep
The sun comes in, the light he holds to show my path
He steps down and hands his wisdom in an box
He claims my laughter from days since lost
All things are made clear in time
The shadows have left me to my own
The little shadow takes my heart
From the box I take the gift retrieved in light for me
In one hand I hold the seeds of life, the other water which to feed
Behold the empty lands before me, the sun gives new to each
The little shadow walks before, the voice from it to me:
"All things have been made clear now
I walk with you to show
The better journey on your path
The melting of the snow
The rain has cleaned the dirt
The sun has made it right
The winds will move gently
Until moons lift the night."
The little shadow kisses my eyes.
end.