Decades

She came in with the new wave -
From the heart of darkness
To my shore.
I didn’t feel it then…
As I feel it now
The salt breezes and the cold.

Out in the midst of this
Cann’t you feel it…
 Rise and fall?
As silent to the box-room we went
Despite the hammering in my soul.

I saw us in that mirror cracked
I felt you unfold below
The waves that rocked the shingle bed
She rode me through the brakes of emotional storm.
From the first to the last year
That seemed so unfaithfully yours.
I sat watching as she waxed and waned
And thought: how mother tied her children to the corn.

I walked you past those fields of fire
It’s only the memories that keep me warm
When the winter nights bring me down
To become another watcher on the shore.
It drives me to the waters edge
It drives me through the dawn
From the nocturnal east-end
To watch the red sun-rise on my own.

I can feel your heat through that summer dress
I can feel it through my pores…
The soft richness of this welter land
As it steams fragrant in repose.
I put my lips to the days gone by
To taste the sweet innocence…
In your thoughts.
I hear the noise from miles away
As I watch it descend the sky alone…
An elegiance with the deep, dark eyes
I took you to your home.

     …a present for the 10th year                    Kanthe ‘87