THE EPILOGUE PART I

KABUL AFGHANISTAN...AT NIGHT

TWO HEARTS - YET ONE

COLD YET NOT

ONE NIGHT 

AND YET FOREVER INSIDE

The dark night air whispers through 
the sinewy fingers of mist...

stirring the leaves in the trees above us, 

but only slightly...

as we move along seemingly inside 
its icy touch. 
Walking...thinking, looking ahead
but seeing little but our inner thoughts.
Ours. Each others. Together.

I am feeling the warmth of a hand
 even through a glove...
yours encircling mine 
and OH that always feels SO good...
and feeling a tingle while 
the night dampness traces its world 
for emphasis upon our cheeks 
 and reminds us of its presence.

WE WALK...
and

I feel the grazing of your hip against mine...
and as if by magic at once...
I feel another emotion going off inside of me... 
as if a thousand fireworks were exploding 
 right here right now. 

As the sky lights up I feel it again, and then a bit faint...
as I turn slightly and look toward you...
and see your smile 
while my entire inner being
 IGNITES.

Flights of I don't know what go 
CAREENING 
off the clouds 

and me with them...and we walk on.

Occasionally, the headlights of an oncoming car 
illuminates the face of your love that I can feel 
even through the dense night fog...and all is at happy peace. 

A slight breeze beckons to the limbs 
of the trees overhead...

C'MON. C'MON!!!

but then there is a deep stillness again..

WE WALK...
ALL IS SO QUIET...
and then

I feel the tightened clasp of your hand 
 in mine and know you feel the 
welcoming squeeze in return, 
as we walk...the dew heavy and our thoughts 
as well together...whoosh.
Together whoosh the breezes 
almost seem to intone...and we hear a sound, 
perhaps a moan from a limb...
straining to go and follow the wind. 

But it does not and too we choose to just stay where we are, 
walking alone yet not...
feeling the night close 
all around us.

It is as if we can almost hear 
that errant breeze going...

EVER MORE...EVER MORE.

I feel a chill...do you? It's a good kind of chill I feel
and we walk...
on...

and on...
into the night. 
Our feet crunching the snow beneath 
and our hearts crunching 
the loneliness away from where 
it had taken root seemingly 
SO long ago now. Quiet. SO quiet.
Almost as if even the night has died...
except for the ever-present and persistent breeze.

Feels somber amongst the almost 
sleeping stillness...
except for the sound and feel 
of our two hearts beating...
as it were, seemingly in unison....
and in perfect symmetry 
to the gentle breeze that cradles the trees 
in its long arms as they touch and I know 
what they must be feeling 
for it is what I feel every time I look at you.

I FEEL YOU SHELTERING ME
even as you walk beside me 
in the cold quiet night.

The misty fog so damp in its clinging 
amidst the eerieness 
of the light filtered through the trees 
and over the tall buildings up ahead in the downtown, silent as churchmice amidst the scurrying of the shadows...
almost a monastery stillness...
with the smokelike air that hangs down 
and almost calls out to us...

can you hear it?

Come...come...go with me to eternity 
and then as always disappearing 
like a breath of cartoon smoke 
that always appears to change the mood 
or alter the feel 
of what was now but no longer is, 
but not now. 

GO, COME GO!

To where? To where, 
the whipporwill would be intoning 
if this were the American south...
deep inside the bogs in the deltas 
of southern Louisiana and Mississippi. 
But this is Kabul and so it is merely the wind...
playing its audio games 
and our hearts laughing silently at the feat...

and the crunching beneath our feet 
as we walk.

You love walking in the night fog, I can tell 
and I love
walking in it with you...
for in you and with you by my side...
I see it anew, differently. 
Feels changed somehow. 
Because of something you bring to the night...
and everything else too, dude. 

The fox has almost a feel of the tiger in him 
to me now, 
and it all feels good...clammy good. 
Should feel cold 
but I am strangely warmed instead...
by your closeness I surmise, no surprise there. 
 You've always brought that to my life.

Yet, for all the dampness that surrounds 
both of us as we wend our way 
through the blackness, weaving here and there 
for no apparent reason...and as always 
you make it all
 less formidable. Less eerie. 
Less fearful...this night thing. 
You make it have meaning to me. 

Somehow, this foggy night is without anything 
but a sense of rightness. Because of...

Oh how I wish I knew, my sweet hunky dude. 
Wish I knew. 
Then again, maybe I do. Yeh, maybe I do 
and so do you 
and so do we 
and we will be okay, as we walk 
that way and this...
through the mist...and the almost rain and too cold for that 
and the occasional flakes of seemingly frozen snow...
and WE REIGN...
as that breeze said...

EVER MORE, EVER MORE...

and I feel a chill, a thrill run up my spine 
at the thought 
that you are mine.

Forever more. Forever More.

Life has come and begun to strum 
the strings of our hearts 
with its warming yet at times 
still icy-feeling fingers. 
 But your warming embrace lingers 
 and chokes off any attempts for the cold
to take up root and as you give it the boot...
I smile while you do as well, 
and you tighten your grip on my hand 
AND my heart.

Start your engines? O GOD yes.

Then suddenly the wind picks up, a bird hollers, 
and I can hear an audible whoosh in the trees. 
I sneeze 
and even more suddenly I am surrounded 
by arms and hands and your body
and the warm fingers 
of comfort and you and I...
finding ourselves searching for a place 
to merely stand, hand in hand,
with our bodies locked tightly... 
and take in the night. 
I shiver and shudder and at once 
you move in even tighter...
seemingly to bring the night 
right along with you
and together you and the night 
calm my fears, dry my tears, 
and my ears perk up to the silence.

Why?

Why do you feel so...

And make me know...what it all means. 
 This life you have asked me to lead with you...
this cavalcade, this parade of danger and joy
and love and fear...
and you did and still do you know. 
You've never taken it back, 
that invitation to be and love 
and live and fly and walk here 
in the sweet dark cold night, 
me and you.

Few can ever know what this is like, but...
out here in the dark where the only spark 
to be found 
is the one inside us and it is what triggers 
the charge that revs the engines of 
the two of us as we walk 
and don't need to talk and just feel...real?
For all that is left of my life...
there is nothing quite like
 what we have right now.
How could we ever let all 
that we have found and been given... 
slip away? 

Oh but we never shall. 
Indeed...we never shall...
for this is what wishes and dreams 
and screams of desire 
and cries of want and need 
are all about. 

I want to shout, but I dare not. 
Not in this night thing 
where the trees and the darkened buildings 
and the barely lit streets and the rustling leaves 
and the eaves move and intertwine 
as if some sort of almost macabre ballet...
and the two of us as we cleave to each other 
like two terrorized mates on a deserted island 
after the ship we had first sailed on ran aground 
and left us to...what? I cannot disturb or perturb 
the forces of the night that shelters us 
 inside itself...
out here where the monsters play 
and the icicles form 
and I have you to warm my fearful heart.

DUDE. I have found LIFE 
in you and YOU in ME...

And we now have everything 
that can vanquish all 
the boogeymen of the night...
as we walk and listen to the moaning 
 of the monsters hiding in that wind 
and in the closet and...
down in the darkened basement
where all evil lives and works its dark magic 
at night 
as any sane person knows full well...
and HELL...

and under the bed and instead of fear 
I can only feel YOU beside me 
and holding me tight, 
listening to your heart along with 
the rustling of the trees...
and feeling joyous and happy,
and so I know 
we will always be this way...

Forever more.

Forever more.

Eternal encore.

Score one for love, the night, 
and we walk deep inside its blackness 
TOGETHER...
and FOREVER 
it shall be this way...

WE...in the darkness AND the light of day...
loving the way it feels 
now that we have the two of us
to share it all with.

All year long...
winter to fall, and on and on we walk...

Silently in the NIGHT IN KABUL...
and yet volumes have been quietly said 
and written on the breezes this night, 
haven't they.

AND 
FOR NOW 
THE ONLY BOMBS GOING OFF 
IN THIS CITY OF FREQUENT AND 
SEEMINGLY RELENTLESS VIOLENCE...
ARE THE ONES GOING OFF INSIDE 
THE TWO OF US...
and so may it always be...

Forever more. Forever more.

_______________________________________

"For one moment our lives met...
our souls touched" 
~ Oscar Wilde

"...and if you can be touched by anything, be touched by the heart that can write of you in such loving glow...& know that it will always be so...and how can your heart NOT respond? No magic wand here, just the words of the heart that loves you and  KNOWS YOU LOVE ME TOO...

Because you have told me so."

~ Dylan...

EPILOGUE - PART II