Echoes In the Fog
By g l bass
(for Jeanie)
March, 1986

Has it all come down to this?
A sun hidden amongst clouds
In Midday Mist.
All the trails
We’ve unwound
All the journeys
We’ve found
Steep,
Rock-Strewn,
Paths we’ve climbed-
Our inch by inch
Struggles,
Hung fingertips,
Clung to cracks
In limestone cliffs-
Chanced jumps,
Boulder to boulder
‘Cross the precipice,
Above this lost and lonely
River.


Only to find this?
An overlook,
Swallowed by fog.
Two thousand feet below
We made a promise:
Love’s worth the try.
Now,
Stranded on this ledge,
We discover yet another
Journey
Lost on an edge.
We strain our eyes
Through hung-in clouds
And vapor rain.
You place your weight
Against mine,
“Was it worth the pain?
Want to continue on again?
The sun’s not about to break
Or shine.”
My reply’s lost
In echoes we cannot trace.
Just as always,
This love of ours
Has lost its place.

Perhaps,
Answers we’ve hidden,
Dropped off the back
Of our minds,
Are but trails
To other questions
We risk our lives to find.
We throw wishes and doubts
Down this Sabinal River Canyon,
Wound round against cavern walls,
They return again,
Echoes called in the fog,
Above a river we cannot abandon.


Neither of us
A giver or a taker,
Without mystery,
Love’s just another easy
Trail.
Really,
There’s no sense
In the final find.
So we continue on again,
In the mist and the rain,
Ghost shadows on the move,
In the fog.
Since we began
This love’s search,
Neither of us has asked why.
The need’s enough
To get us by.
We,
You and I,
Smile as echoes
Wind their way
Back to us
Through the gray.

Yes,
We agree it is best,
It has all come down to this-
The trails we’ve climbed,
But questions left behind,
An overlook meant for echoes,
Dropped off the back of the mind,
And ghosts who beckon us on
To continue the climb…..