i am concluding my affairs

i am concluding my affairs
          as this sojourn
          comes to its timely end

the while owl last night
fluttered on my roof’s peak,
fluttered to announce
the conclusion of the pact we’d made

she said
            i was done!
she said
            it’s time to move along!
and now
            her mother owl with
            golden heavenly eyes
            would carry me to unimaginable places

that
            all along were
            only hints of nostalgia
            that always toggled at my elbows

and now
            they may soon shine
            like the mid-day sun putting
            my messenger owl to rest and sleep
            who’d kept a keen eye on me all along

it IS that time! and i
            can abide like all abide
            like the fisherman whose
            head bobs like his rod, as
            he leaves the Bay, gained
            or not what the ocean had to say

that while owl in my quieting mind
rests in her perch until all is done

then
            with soft wings she
            travels at night, and rests on a new perch

  

– Joe Beninati^[1]