Damascus
  
 there was a time
 I thought
 it would all
             make sense
  
 the mysteries unravel
 a secret knot revealed
 on the inside spindle
 of everything.
  
 was sure there was
 a certain age  when
 magic tricks and miracles
 became transparent.
  
 it has been a disappointment
 part of the gradual attrition 
 of doubt.
  
 I have learned
 to expect less
 accept the unknowing.
  
 the body fails
 memory fades
 no secret code decrypted
 no new particle
 of creation found.
  
 there was a time
 I believed in nothing
 had almost given up
  
 when a space opened
 between one word
 and the next
  
 and the whole composition
 of things   changed:
 the sky shifted
 the road fell
  
 and there was no escape
 from wonder

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Born (1951) and raised in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island, Ken Cathers has a B.A. from the University of Victoria and a M.A. from York University in Toronto. Has been published in numerous periodicals, anthologies as well as seven  books of poetry,  most recently Letters From the Old Country with Ekstasis Press. Lives in the country with his family and his trees.