the shade of the soul stretching

(October 2022. My first night arriving in Minnesota, which I’d dreamed about for so long. I arrived slightly after peak fall foliage, but oh boy was it still gorgeous. I drove down a long tight tree-lined forest service road to a lovely campsite, and walked with Waldo as the sun set, the sky darkened, and the silhouettes

as the bare white limbs blacken
against the settling darkness of evening
silhouettes falling together as branches
overlap black and slackening lace
one web without boundaries
cause or direction aimless i
walking no longer need to know
what knowing leads to knowing
which path to follow and way to go
through the fallen leavings of
the past crunching to silence
under my footsteps, memory
melting into one disorient shadow
with the future and now overlain
as night stain under my bootsoles
the shade of the soul stretching
all ways without wherefore