San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

MARK A. FISHER

A fool

I was young

therefore a fool

drowsing in eternal twilight

beneath doubtful mountains

of books all written contrary

by men of bright vapor

shrouded and brooding

breathing deep of their

sublimated hate

and shadows of belief

that flit between

a lost and forgotten

Elysium

and abundant loneliness

written in sand

spilled across the library floor

where I slipped

and fell

to waken to a knowledge

as naturally as if

I had earned

every drop and dram

then I spill

my gossamer thoughts

to drift on winds

up those mountainsides

and disappear

into the starlight

while I grow old

and therefore

a fool