By: John P. Drudge

Pathways

Keeping the secrets
Of our ancestors
Tapping the tales
Of crumbling walls
To the foundation
Of our stories
The pinnacle
Of it all
Where we return
To plants and soil
Without fanfare
Or tribute
In particularly
Ordinary ways
Rising and falling
Down the winding
Pathways
Through the trees

###

Ashore

Something
Broke me open
Somewhere
Carrying me over bones
And rubble roads
Toward the coast
Where we once
Came ashore

###

Bourdain

Life can be messy
Sometimes
Its where the greatest
Art begins
Unfortunate
And possibly tragic
But ultimately
Unsurprising in the end
Suicide
Has no blame
It’s an aberration
Of disordered senses
Lost in the fragments
Of a scattering
Wind

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John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology.  He is the author of four books of poetry: “March” (2019), “The Seasons of Us” (2019), New Days (2020), and Fragments (2021). His work has appeared widely in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children.