Cliff Fall (Poetry)

(Song for Arthur)

What made you take the evening air
and test it with a thought unheard?
What made you dream the breeze might bear
your weight and hold you like a bird?

Some Icarus without his wings
you plummeted to unkind earth.
Somewhere a grieving angel sings
who minds the gap ’twixt death and birth.

Who knows what terrors or what calm
beset you as you floated free.
What did your body the most harm
or saved you from more misery?

What reason lured you to the edge?
Who know the story — false or true?
What secret fell from that high ledge
and took the plunge along with you?

No answer from the chalky cliff.
The spot examined cannot say
and silence veils reports as if
some private mystery holds sway.

Meanwhile the salt-sharp atmosphere
sighs your name where seagulls soar
and no one knows what happened here
while tides roll in just as before.