Urban Tension

Chinook arches
over mountain tops;
I let go of the breath
I didn't even know I was holding

Home
but not home

Winding down the arteries of this urban heart.
A beat I once knew;
knew differently.

I gravitate northwest
where I can still stand upon the earth
with a sense of place;
I venture elsewhere
and things become unpredictable
   Maybe I've been there,
   maybe I haven't

It's hard to tell
and it's not always the same
as what my mind recalls

--it bugs me.

Footprints left
so many years ago
   That's the street where...
   That reminds me of the time when...
   Oh, yeah, and that spot where I...

And just when I think I've come up
from almost drowning in memories
I turn around and
another childhood moment
that I had long forgotten
throws itself upon me

The memories were made
with child's eyes
And I have come back with adult eyes

And so I find my heart
simultaneously
craving what I remember
and trying to make sense of what is new

Leaping a chasm
that I created in time and space

And all I want

is a bridge