beside the trail
on an enormous boulder
swept and settled by water
thousands of years ago
someone has written
in metallic blue
I’ll stop looking for you here
in neat block letters
of paint

I hope he
found an ending
here
I worry about his use
of future tense

as for me
beside the trail
beneath the brilliant blue
I lay down the burden
of your absence
let it settle with the weighted detritus
of the missoula floods
leaving me
able to walk along the path
starting
ghostless

I hope
this is an ending
here
I worry
in this moment
I’m talking to you

.