Love Canal

Floating along the Love Canal,
The winter crisp creating icicles,
Brittle snaps of coldness.
Journey through Love Canal.
Hearing the stories,
Imagining the love built
then the dreaded seeping of the sludge.

For it always seeps through,
Intentions good but the mercurial mediocrity
takes us for granted.

Through the rock and cold seeps
the ugly cancer dripping with
it's formidible intent.

There is always the deep foreboding
in the recesses of our mind.
Fencing in of hearts
to preclude the ultimate
awakening of the Love Canal.

So not unlike our human condition,
Trained to reach for the dream,
clenching it so tightly
that it seeps like wet mud through our fingers.
Earth swallowing our best intentions.
Reminding us who's really steering the boat down
Love Canal.

In the basement of our youth is where it begins,
Eroding away our lives as we grope, play and learn to love.
Creating hopeful hearts,
Building a wonderful dream,
Holding so tightly
as to watch the absorption begin
as the walls of our foundation slowly fill up
behind the veil.

Eventually it fills like the wet sponge and spills
when pressure and liquidity reaches its max.
It oozes from our walls and flow onto our floor.
Straining to return to the Love Canal.

I always felt it when I was there,
The wonder at how the love embraced my being.
Unexpected and intense in its intimacy
flowing deep into the crevices of my soul.

I never knew that one day I would learn what it was.
Why it was
How it chose me.

A glittering display
of light shining.
So bright and so cold.
The reflections create
a brilliance like a galaxy of stars
brought down for me to touch.
Dip my hands in the water as it flows
Feeling the cold and dissipating the stars
in the Love Canal.

Now, I float freely in the river
the love and sludge slide me along the Love Canal.