Stalking Seeds

Planted stalking seeds behind me

to watch years grow unfolding

in volumes, surrounding time

Subservient graces to upper reaches

in the arc of the shadow,

repelling light

Put miles on tread and between,

draining time from cold affronts

Awkward instruction quelling impulses,

tempering inspiration, bound

with laces of necessarily cruel choices

and judgement rendered

In living deliverance

Placated in rhymes finding

spaces to dwell the lines in validation

Redemptive finds pushing and pulling,

they drew distinct marks

met and fostered in quiet corners

shining on the surface

Journeys portended wedges

moving away from knowing places,

arising unknown or unrealized

A little surprised when expectations

held and gleaned in uncertainty

faded in the picture of years

In finite incompletion

Matt Mauldin
9/2017
Santa Barbara, CA