Storm in a Tea-cup

My face
has developed a leak.

Hateful damp patches,
dried streaks of wetness,
hinting at
rising, flood-threatening
water levels.

A heated anger,
flashing and lashing,
condenses into
an abrupt cloud-burst.

Total Recall

(Based on Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World)



Tossed
from an argosy of nightmares,
I wake up to
a familiar alienation,
to a beguiling breeze
that taunts
and whispers old secrets.

I gaze upon
a mirage so close
it can be tasted.
A haunting melody
that beckons,
that seeks to pierce
the paralysis of my past.

Take me back, if you will,
or take me away.

Footnote

I ask not to be part
of the glories that you write,
the fantasies that you weave.

The warp of imagination,
the weft of words
The tapestry you compose
of heroic scenes and gallant times.

The throbbing of love
Consummated with pain.
The coffin of grief
layered with the dust of smiles.

I ask not to be part
of the dreams you conceive.

I am content
to be a footnote
to explain your lives.

Waking Up

I catch you as you quietly
try to slip away from me.
"Just stay awhile," I beg of you
but you ignore my plea.
You leave me lying in my bed,
sighing wistfully.

I yearn for you to linger on,
and kiss my tired eyes.
I know you've spent the night with me,
but with you, time just flies.
And now, just as the day begins,
I want you, I realize.

Just one more warm embrace, my love
A few moments with you.
Why must I let you go each morn?
Why must we part anew?
But go you must - so woefully,
I must bid you adieu.

I know you will come back to me,
And smooth my weary head.
Sweet Slumber, I love you so much,
'tis the mornings that I dread.
I only wish that I could sleep
Just a little longer in bed!

Youth

I see your pictures
and smile.

I know
the color will begin
to bleed away silently.

Your unfettered laughter
will be tossed into
a corner
of the closet of your mind,
while you try on
a new wardrobe
of straitjacket suits -
the ambitious black
and the responsible grey.

Your smooth face
will be lined by the
pathways of your choices,
and your straight back
will stoop to conquer
life's battles.

Yet, I will not tell you all.
I will admire
the pretty pictures you take,
and steal a little hue
to tint my own sepia prints.