Spent Tindersticks

1.

There are albatrosses and crosses 
to be borne always -
hung around the neck 
along with the accumulated guilt
of accumulated years.

The older I get
the heavier is my burden.

There are no encyclopaedias, 
no maps, no almanacs 
to help predict 
the movement of tectonic plates.

The earth quakes 
and even the sturdiest of towers 
are destroyed.

Despite 
the books I’ve read, 
the oracles I’ve consulted,
the spirits I’ve communed with 
and the drugs I’ve consumed
I still cannot understand 
this journey.

I was there 
and now I’m here.

Somewhere along the way 
I lost you -
 
all that remains
is a faded out photograph 
and some dried out bones 
rattling in my bag.

 

2.

You were an aurora 
in a grey land -
a flame that filled me
with crazy desires
and passionate dreams.

You were a firefly, 
a thunderstorm -
you kept my heart warm.

But now, 
you are indistinguishable
from ash -

you are 
spent tindersticks,
burned out 
of all your magic;
and your dried out bones
are rattling like stones
in my bag.