John the Cousin by Patrick T. Reardon

He leaves
the well-plowed rectangles of patchwork soil
for the mountain gap and the waste.

He puzzles the heat, emptiness, echoless expanse.

Crouched in the shade of a boulder,
he sings his life song.

Later, called John the Fool
by those who wear their fears like armor.

He thinks of himself as John the Lost.
He pours water over heads,
hoping he can follow the flow.

He seeks the delta and the sea.
He seeks the one above the deep.