Silver leaves line
the road I travel through
Cherry blossom trees
Too fragile and fearful to bloom
Storm clouds gather ahead
and a crack of blue sky appears
The birds of the air feel its heaviness
And scatter as it nears
In this bleak city
We entertain thoughts of mortality
Misplaced and displaced
Spectators of our own calamity
Part one: The White Collar Parade
The smell of money on them
More pungent than liquor
Their suits, creaseless
Neatly folded like bank notes
from a robbery
An army of uniforms;
The white collar parade
Filtering in and out of
the cobbled chaos
I try to dodge them all
Bullet through the air
Without a care
A rainbow flash
In monochrome
~
Part two: The City that Coughs You up and Spits You out
Each day, I pass the homeless man by
Just one of many
In the city that coughs you up
And spits you out
Little does he know
I’ll be leaving this place for good
Packed up and fed up,
Dragging my career behind me
We exchanged a glance
But no words
His sky blue eyes looked up at mine;
Pained and questioning
I walked on, like I always do
Wondering who was feeling more sorry for who
I poured soft teardrops
into the pillows of your shoulders
Clenched fists
became open palms
As our weary sighs carried us
to the morning’s alarm
Stretching out
I gave you my embrace:
a warmth to conceal
the salty, bitter taste
The taste of tears
that would not be swallowed
The taste of fears
of remaining hollow
Can we share our sadness
and in the sharing,
turn our sorrow into gladness?
Like the rainbow after the rain,
our joy is only complete
By enduring momentary pain
In this world
our mortal chains wear us down
but could the greater heights of heaven
be shared with you now?
For on this earth,
a lovers’ paradise have we made and shared
but in the greater heights of heaven
could a non-believer be spared?
Bound by our coils
we would dance until Death’s delight
but would that final hour
extinguish our love’s last light?
Cast out to paradise alone
I would to God’s mercy entreat
to spare my lover’s unbelieving
that to our maker we both could meet
(The poet never truly sleeps
writing their truth beneath the sheets)
A dream of you
leaves me feeling blue
and waking
alone
again
Aching upon
somewhere to belong
between a lover and a friend
As the time I held
your paper-like, origami shape
in my arms, without fear or qualms
You never questioned
my caress
but drew me closer to you
While the morning silence
undressed
our thoughts at the seams
I imagined you
At the origin of the world
Watching and waiting with weary eyes
For your world to be changed
Boy of bloodied birth no longer
But man of womb and flesh revealed,
Did you cry and crumble
At the spot where Nature’s love was sealed?
As you gaze upon your own
Bloodiness, father of the child that you were
Picturing a new innocence
As Life seeps out in a blur…
The disconcerting yet reassuring horizon
Like open and eternal arms stretching out
To wrap around
The body of the Earth
Guiding lost sailors toward far away shores
Will I find love there? They ask
As the wind beats into their sails
A hope to capsize previous fails
Their hunger for more
Rum and whiskey blacks out the lies
Drunken and driving forward
Toward ever blurred lines
And the distant lady calling,
A siren on the horizon
You are my lady in waiting,
Waiting for a sign
Pain like a sunrise
Greets me every morning
I wake without you
By my side
Your smell still locked
Into the warmth of the bed
Anchors me to its depths
Drowning
The kisses of yesterday
Like bruised fruit
Bittersweet upon my neck
That once lingered now start to fade
As the morning sorrows
Sweetening song
Contained in the mouth of a bird
Ascends and falls unheard;
Didn’t you know that Man’s deadest hour
Is when Nature is most alive?
The Red morning sky
Reveals the shepherd’s warning:
Think more with your heart
And less with the mind
Else lovers fall away; stray and blind
There you are:
Sitting, uncurled
As Curiosity feeds
Your wide brown-eyed gaze
Did I un-ruffle you?
I got lost in your maze…
Those were the days:
Watching your Spanish waves
Unfurl upon the broad
Of your shoulders
A beach of dappled skin
Stretched out before me;
Sun-kissed with freckles
By the sun’s bright rays
And my own tender-meaning lips
Softer still, and still unravelling
My love for you like a lock of your hair
Wrapped around your finger twirling
Unties and unbinds itself from ‘truth’
Instead I tied myself to you…
My body: the work of your interpretation
Translating truth into fiction
And back again
Did you ever see
The stars shine so bright
Blinding out
The great mystery
Of even the darkest night?
Its perpetual darkness
Within which we discover
The truths of ourselves;
The truths of each other
When we with hollow
And impenetrable faces
Forget the depth
Hidden behind those gazes
That Look through
Into the mirrors of minds
Reflecting back and forth;
Lost memories in time
Endless and eternal
Just as the stars of the sky;
Scars of fire that light up and
Pierce the night
We were once you and I
As distant and as bright,
Staring simultaneously
Towards a future and a past;
Light years suspending
A life that was meant to last…
Catherine Lucy Rowland 