When interim sleep takes me

I want you close beside

No tears, no sad goodbye

I am calm and still as a fallen autumn leaf

When that interim sleep takes me

I will pass first into a room next door

Not far away, nor lost to finer senses

Not gone forever, nor to be forgotten

And when your turn comes at last

To close those waking eyes

Pass willing to the room next door

Seeking no blameless redemption

Walk to that open window, open to the stars

Look out down the winding river valley

Where lights sparkle, marking stations

Stations where trains start and stop

On the separate journeys of our many lives

High above the nearest empty station

Flies a solitary bird, faint in the higher distance

Circling, soaring in the infinite blue

Reach up to that bird to find me waiting

On firm, welcoming, feathered wings

Together we will circle in that infinite blue

Glide down past stately barges to the next twinkling station

Buy tickets, stow useless excess baggage

To board the onward train, another journey