Returning to the Surface

“The one returning to the surface is always different from the one who dives” RILKE

Borders. I sat alone at lunch.

I watched a man darker than me, drinking in a letter he had received in an envelope with red and blue stripes on the edges. There was something so intimate and vulnerable about the way he held it so close to the wet surface of his glassy eyes… that I wanted to look away but I couldn’t.

Just like I couldn’t look away from the cemetery of the naked trees that seemed to stretch their bony fingers towards God at Catoctin this weekend.

Did they rejoice in being part of God’s bigger plan? Were they aware that underneath the shrouds of dead leaves…lies His promise of spring?

“On dit: j’ai rêvé, et non: j’ai menti.
on se réveille, on fait la refonte,
reentrant avec un peu de honte
dans la chamber anéantie.

L’ascenseur nous remet à l’étage,
dit "de la réalité" et s’en va.

Et on montre aux choses sages
sa figure de mardi gras.

Y a-t—il advantage en fait de mensonge?
cela depend du chasseur et de la chasse.
Celui qui revient à la surface
est toujour un autre que celui qui plonge.” RILKE