Tag: Love and Loss

i wrestled in my bed with sweat and demons
as madness tore into my febrile mind
the burning from inside that brooks no pretense
the loneliness that’s always there to find

across a rope-bridge chasm you were staring
amid a blaze of red and wild face
but no amount of shouting broke the silence
and no amount of running closed the space

but how your look seared into me with loathing
the river down below was all afire
i longed to bring you back and home to safety
but felt the platitude in my desire

in vision-tangled sheets i woke to humming
the sound of air-conditioned ambience
i rose to splash my face and drink some water
with little hope and little left of sense

i stare now at a screen that sits impassive
i’m not sure who i am or how i feel
it’s strange that after all the things i’ve been through
it’s only in my dreams
that life seems
real

Everywhere

I used to see you everywhere.

I used to see you everywhere
On every city street;
The faces might be strange to me
No one I’d ever meet

And yet, I’d see your face in them,
The color of your hair:
It didn’t matter where I went
I saw you everywhere

But time – it laughs at shadows, and
The glances just grew less;
I didn’t see you anymore
And much to my distress

I found one day that hope had died
That last gasp of romance –
No crowd seems so exciting as
When there was still
A chance

… kites across the sky

in rows, the kites across the sky,

the families running, side-by-side;

the spring has come, with all its warmth,

the freeze has gone away, and died

 

as i, the watcher, go my way,

and whisper, looking back, “goodbye,”

for all i lost when you detached

and joined the other kites

across

 
the sky

I saw three tulips in a row…

I saw three tulips in a row
As if in mimicry of rows of stone;
They stood a flimsy guard upon the way
That I have walked today,
And walked alone —

So recently, just shaking hands,
Before you left to come out here to sleep;
And now these silent guards keep watch
Of one lone new dug swatch
Where you’ve your keep —

Life tears at us, and rips us, to
The core of what we’ve been and are;
And friends just float away like
Lost balloons
The spring is new mown in the grass,
And what was near now seems so far,
The clouds, they stack, for
Gathering monsoons

A glance: three tulips in a row,
Three brothers duty-borne and newly free:
So much that once seemed far is near,
Like history – or destiny –
And my despairing wish
You still
Were here

This Lonesome Tree

This bayou opened to the bay
Which opened to the sea;
We sat as children in our love
Beneath this lonesome tree

They said we couldn’t know of love
Too young of years were we;
And yet true lovers we were then
If ever lovers be

This spot remains as then it was,
As in my memory;
The smell and taste of love’s first kiss
Beneath
This lonesome
Tree

 

(“This Lonesome Tree” – 4-21-2015)

An Echo In The Forest

From across a far ravine.

An echo in the forest
From across a far ravine;
The last words that you said to me
In memory still green

An echo in the forest
That my lonesome ears discern:
The sound of your departing
Knowing you would not

Return

An Old Stone Bench

On an old stone bench
In the worn green grass,
We told our tales,
And dreamed our dreams —

We ran there together
On an old dirt path,
Then went our ways,
And joined our teams —

For love is shy
But youth is brave,
And every hour’s
Not one
You’d think to save —

By an old stone bench,
In the worn green grass
Another summer’s
Soon to pass

And I wish I knew
Why the stream still sings,
When I lost your heart
Like so many other

Things