disarray -
late …
summer eventide ...
I lay on the rug,
head by the window,
feet tended in the direction away
from your house ...
deliberately ... designedly ...
full moon drizzling its
cornflower bloom thru venetians,
dividing into soft, dripping
strips of liquid sapphire
that slather my skin with somber
streaks of twilight -
shredded like the ragged raiment
of my heart, and what's left of
my shirt - my favorite shirt -
the one you always wore to bed,
for me, for passion ... for us …
the one I JUST took off
and tore to ribbons,
soaked with the unholy
issue of wet from my eyes,
now strewn across my bare chest ...
in this bare room ...
ALL - clothes, love, life -
in disarray ...
the sea is breathing ...
regular balmy bursts of brine that
push the blinds away from
the sill, then relent ... push ... relent,
making the shadows part
like lips and purse,
just as a wee child blowing the thistle
off a dandelion, or the
way you'd wake me each morn,
parting my hair with
puffs of tea-scented breath,
until my lashes
batted open and sopped
up the splashes of your smile,
my fingers tunneling their
way through Egyptian cotton
to prize your softest, tickle-friendly spots ...
greeting the day with slow, sweet,
tender love-making ...
those thoughts quickly
perish, fizzling like white phosphorous ...
I am stone now,
as cold and sallow as the moon -
bloodless and stark,
with no breath but what the
ocean gifts me ...
my only tie to you now,
this moonbeam, a streak of wan
light that I shall grasp like
a wispy, tenuous rope, and hold on
with what will I have remaining -
with what semblance of
a spirit you've left me with ...
a rope of soft glow that is
now my only connection to you -
from my barren heart to
the mocking moon,
from the mocking moon to
your mocking love ... and you ...
this strand of moonlight
lustre will tie us, ever,
for if not, it will most assuredly find
its way 'round my throat, and I
can think of no more
fitting or beautiful
a thread
from which to …
dangle.
~ 4th Place ~ in the "Disarray" Poetry Contest, Nina Parmenter, Judge & Sponsor.
|