Before Leaving For The Greeley’s

soon I will know who I am

soon I will crunch through snow

measure myself in the distance behind me sinking

boot and breath into the spine of who

soon I will discover was my former self

lost like the river frozen beneath

yet becoming

becoming roads

that lead to languages I have never dreamed

roads that are themselves bridges that betray

neither what they conceal or where they lead

bridges that trestle two inconceivable sources

just as it carries me off

so do I

carry it along

the two parallel boulevards

that I try to lose myself in

try to lose me

so, it is my choice to sleep there

nothing makes a place more real

as though snoring and waking

on the banks of diverging selves might

keep my knuckles from grinding

across the surface of myself

just as the river files the underbelly of ice

and the ice chisels the trail around it

I too intend to hack out the horror

that might one day be

with a low grit

and a bold boot

me