Don't fade away

for my grandmother

photo paper losing its grip
memory sent skipping
needle broken drops
rutted path across the field
of an old black record

a distant gunshot of thought
lost
like a corpse in an unmarked grave

some other thing happening
never echoing back
some other place

a hole in the bucket
dear universal presence
"consciousness"

a built in kill switch
only goes one way

entropic bag 
charged by sun and heat
growing toward
one last push

don't lose our place 
our place just for a minute 
a second really

we ebb broken 
tides going out finally

to wherever the flames 
from birthday candles go

never returning to this ground

images fading like voices
in an undefined fog 
of scrolling names
on a screen at night
picking up speed 
with each passing moment

light dimming 
you fade away
wrinkles laying around 
your face

I like having you here
knowing you're somewhere 
near me
sharing this fluid net

crossing like sunlight
flashing through my eyelids
decades of life culminating