^{Termination Dust}

 

^{You stared in silence} 

^{at the MRI, at the shadowy}

^{cavitation of a patient’s brain.} 

^{It was progressing, this unknown process, at breathtaking speed.}

^{Your team had tossed every life raft, every throw rope overboard,}

^{and watched them sink, without effect, into the deeps.}

^{Soon you shuffled down the hall, eyes averted.}

^{It was time for rounds.}

 

^{His fiancé fisted the railing}

^{as you all filed into the room,} 

^{offering more specialists and procedures,}

^{last ditch efforts to pull this young man from the storm}

^{of his inevitable end.}

^{But no one spoke of that.}

^{You shifted quietly at the bedside,} 

^{navigating this unexpected failure.}

^{Weary of this, you drifted, watching}

^{the patient’s smooth brow, his even breathing, his clear eyes.}

^{As his cloudless gaze met yours,}

^{you straightened, seeing now a soul} 

^{instead of a patient,}

^{not a life cut short,}

^{no victim of neurodegenerative} 

^disease. 

^{You saw he was} 

^{the only peaceful being in the room.}

^{For a moment, you leaned toward him,} 

^{drawn into his tide.}

 

^{That was years ago. Now,}

^{when the autumn storms arrive,}

^{the forest fills with our territorial calls.}

^{You see the boat caught in a squall,}

^{feel the frost reach deep fingers across the meadow}

^{to drape the mountains in white.}

^{A season is ending}

^{and darkness opens its grip, taking more.}

^{This is one way to see it.} 

 

^{Come with me.}

^{Meet me at the snow line,} 

^{where the termination dust falls.}

^{This apparent boundary}

^{is more than just a gradient,}

^{a single point of transition.}

^{Some snow is melting. An ice fog hovers. Rime hugs the willow.}

^{All phases are at play here,}

^{a constant recreating} 

^{of form}

^{and light.}

^{Watch with me, here on this hemlock}

^perch

^{as the sun rides lower,}

^{drawing the dusk into lazy, husky flames.}

^{The white ridges catch fire, embers of rose}

^{and violet,}

^{and even the night is brightened} 

^{by this so called dust.}

^{This is the owl’s view. We call it out across the valley, then}

^{fold our silent wings} 

^{to watch.}

^{Can you see it?}

^{Like his wordless, lucent gaze,}

^{the storm holds both}

^{a battle}

^{and a brightening.}