Companion poem for chapter 8 of the R.M. Dolin novel, "Trophic Cascade"
Read original poem, Read chapter
Chance wanders west hoping to
simplify and find distance.
It’s a difficult and desperate journey
to right now,
fraught with fear,
uncertainty,
and a need to find balance
between moving on
and letting go.
Sympatico’s journey is
much the same
only imposed by the will
of wicked men.
She long ago quit caring
about tomorrow or
whatever the hell
fate holds in store.
Risk is an instinct to survive
measured against a willingness
to move all in.
As emptiness pursues night,
Chance retraces
the cause and effect
of attempting to manipulate outcomes.
Sympatico long ago forged
a barrier between right now,
and what’s been taken.
By themselves they're incomplete.
Even together they are at best
pieces of a broken whole.
There are no words to capture pain.
No language for loss.
This is why,
God invented silence.
From the R.M. Dolin novel, “Trophic Cascade.” Chance tells Jake the story of how he came to be in Worland Wyoming and the tragic events that transpired, only most of the story is fabricated to protect the innocent. What Chance doesn’t know is that Jake knows the truth about what happened, as least as much as anyone can.
