Anniversary

   Do you remember those summers long ago
   That forested valley where we lived
   Remote, cocooned in silence?
   After sundown the bush smelt dry and honeyed
   And moths crowded the lamplight.
   I cut a hole in the hut wall
   With a chainsaw
   Slapped in a pane of cracked glass
   To watch the close-by ridgelines in the night.
   Stars blazed, owls sang their comfortless cry
   And the creek purred at the edge of our sleep.
   Yes, you liked it there
   And if I had offered you something different
   You would not have been enchanted.
   That long ago life seems
   So far behind us now
   But I remember the moths
   Blue-sheened and dazzled
   In the lamp’s bright aureole
   And watching them fall
   One by one
   I knew you wouldn’t be here long.

       – Jogyata.