Prize of Days

Days used to be the prize

Letting sunshine drip between the ears like molten gravy

Sweetening the afternoon air

On the way from somewhere to someone

But I’ve seen smaller things than a crooked smile tweak a man into a child with a calendar

Swing from lush canopies into the cold street

A light alive lost alone along a leveled labyrinth

One by one my friends went home

And I stayed in the dewy forest

Letting those last shimmering rays of gold bless my jaunted step

Straying from where the concrete meets the sprawling grassland whose vines could fool you into believing it was they that were growing

And not being grown over