Let me escape to the rim of the world [A POEM]

The connection is off tonight
The cold is steep
The silence is steel
And gold

New and old knowledge is my comfort and my curse
Whether it is Freud, or Lewis or van der Leek
Does it matter?
Does it nurse?

A flame burns logs in my living room
A hot cauldron warming a house for one
What do the families and friends and scoffers do?
How do they maintain their laughter at life?

The flame that burns, that glows, distills
A residue of fine ash, a rarefied powder
That defies the imagination and even science
To explain how all comes from thin air

The wonder and the warmth of this
Does not entertain thoughts of holy ground
Or chasms of hell
But citadels of silence

Let me escape to the rim of the world
Where thoughts of my father fade
And his thoughts of me
Let me escape to the rim of the world