This poem, like “Three Refuges in Dying”, is fundamentally about death, though it is not so much about coming to terms with mortality as about dissolution and returning to the universe. It was the last of my poems I showed to my friend Caroline before she died, and and I read it at the memorial service for my friend Viv…I hope I will be able to avoid having need of it again for a while, though.
“Homecoming”
28 July 2019, in College Park, Maryland
My soul is fire, quenched
in your cold embrace.
My breath is air, bubbling,
dissolved in your depths.
My body is earth, dropping
to join your sediments.
My blood is hidden brine,
released to the eternal sea.
I become one with you,
and I am become naught.