Burney Falls

The sand is cold and brittle
With snow ice, laced
Beneath the firs on Burney Beach

The water falls a thousand feet
A surge of white, a tattered
Shroud against the shore

The winds smell of snow
Of a deeper winter yet to come
When ice will still the lake

You come here for solitude
Your silence carves the air
Quiet image of bondage and despair

For you cannot be touched
Your skin is ice-spun
Might shatter and dissolve

I know this temptation of loneliness
The different ways
Of falling from the sky

For in love have I
Fallen here and crashed
Against a god of stone                                                                                              

(c) 1990 J.L. Stanley