These Steps

A real heart breaker for me to write, tears streaming down my face. I saw these stairs and, well, the whole thing seems like a song, like Neil Diamond singing "September Morn". https://youtu.be/roW_ME

                        The Steps

               I passed those steps
                      today alone.
             There are some cracks
                   not there before
        and more vines laying about.

                   I waited as long
                    as ever I could.
             I had a spot in the bow
           for your satchel and you. 
             The time passed when
                  you should come
                 and then it passed
                   when you could.
                    The tide turned
                     under me and
                    the moon rose.
               I poled my skiff away,
                  it rode quite high,
          so dreadfully unburdened
                      was it now. 

                 The harvest came,
               the one we dreamed
             of harvesting together.
               I would have returned 
                    but for the war.
                  When I did I was
                  that boy no more.
                    I looked for you
                 but you were gone.
                    I asked for you
              but they looked down.
          That lovely girl that I knew
           did not live here anymore.

                   Whenever I walk
                  this river’s course,
               I think of all the water
                    that has flowed,
        whenever I pass these steps.

                        L’Isle-5/23