vision quest: severance, threshold, return (incorporation)

Is it heavy handed
for me to tell you that
I'm standing on a path
in a graveyard repeating
to myself the question:
where am I going?
where am I going?
An answer is obvious,
dust to dust.
I am standing in a graveyard.
My mortality is reflected
in the polished sheen
of a headstone - I can
count vague features
of my face between
the letters (embossed?)
Behind me, the path dis-
appears beneath a fresh
layer of snow. Ahead
a branch has fallen.
It is all brown and grey.
at least it is
warm. The snow is
receding from the
washsmooth bases
of stones. There
are birds. But I
am standing on a path.
In a graveyard. Asking
where I am going.

Back to school.
And after?
To a meeting, to get
some food, homework.
After that?
Finish out the year.
Mexico. The summer
vacation.
What about after school?
Masters program.
Where?
I don't know.
Then?
Teaching.
Where?
I don't know.

I'm looking for
knuckles and fingers
coming trhough the
dirt. The names
on the stone have
been obliterated by
lichen and age. Is
that all that was
left of them? Now
they are gone?

Where did they go?
Natural decomposition.
Bacteria and fungis turning
into detritus. The bones
(abraised?) away by the
movements of the soil
and footsteps above.
Where did their hearts go?
I don't know.
Heaven?
What's that?
Where will you go?
Firmament of atomic
structure, and
energy vibrations.
Where did your father go?
Heaven.
What's that?
A place I don't need
to worry about.
Where are you going?
I'm taking one step.
And after that?
I'm taking another step.