Edge of Light

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A gravel    fenced    road
                                                                                     skirts
 
                                                        the abandoned sheds
                                                                       of chickens
                                                                       or horses
                                                                                    farm tools
                                                                                         blacksmiths
 
                                                             corners of un-remember-able
                                                                                                          storage--

a short dry slope
through the quiet                          
                                                         of elsewhere ranchers
on a sliver
of access

between     the private lands

He comes to the bridge                                                   
at the corporate    ownership                      
where he is     disallowed
but without wrath

Disobeying                                                                                 
knowing that he is no liability
Pahn follows the boggy river                                  
                       in its small
                        and grassy valley
its clear water
brought near                           
and away again              
with its meanders

A man with dark      freckled skin                    
joins him                                             
in a hunters cap
with a radio
                    and a long thin gate
reassuring Pahn
                  with his                      hermit similarity
and distant feeling                           like all people                         
on the fringes                      of their own society
who find a comfortable place
                  on the edge of habitation
                                                                     where they can raise a family
                                                                   and still escape
                                                                                      into the wilderness
 
                                                                       into that
wild order                         
                                                                                       where relationships
                                                                       between plants
                                                                    animals
                                                                       rocks
                                                                                            and water are
                                                                      too complex     to separate
         in a mind
                                                                      too extensive to recall
         in detail

but if left alone
                                                            to walk with thought
                                                         fall together

in the most inevitable way                                               

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