Following the Guide, by Gregory Lucas

The Adirondack Guide, by Winslow Homer (USA). 1894.

Following the Guide

Between
the shaded brook
and you, outside the frame,
longing for everlasting sleep,
he waits,

holding 
his oars brightened
by death’s supernal gold
above the kaleidoscopic
forest

mirrored
in tiny rings
spreading on the current
that trickles with a softened hum
and lures

your soul
closer toward him,
away from a disease
that spares no pain, knows no limits
of malice.

Across 
his flannel shirt
his suspenders’ dark belts
dissolve into an enduring  
brilliance.

He turns
his bearded face
under the broad-brimmed hat
and beckons you to follow him.
“Why pause?”

The prow
of his canoe
points toward merciful rest,
where the river bends into darkness,
eternal.

Intense,
yet tranquilly,
he beckons and fixes
his eyes on yours while he glides past
lilies

swaying
in the soft breeze
that channels your world and his,
and that will serve you now your
last breath.

One step
inside the frame --
it’s all you had to take.
Once there, the sweep of the current
holds you,

numbs you
with its cold grace
while the swirling brown leaves
falling from Adirondack trees
softens

the bank
by the bare oak 
fallen into the stream.
Bodiless and pain-free you drift, reach
branches

outstretched 
like helping hands,
grasp them, and pull yourself 
with mercy through a dying breath,
dreamless.

Gregory Lucas

Gregory Lucas (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina) writes fiction and poetry.  His short stories and poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in many magazines such as The Lyric, Scarlet Leaf, Neologism, Bewildering Stories, The Horror Zine, and Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine.