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Poetry

Autumn

Splinter and Splice

"Live by the sun / Love by the moon"

A cheap rhyme I scribbled down

and tucked into the corner of my gown

Sentimentality sounds prettier 

when she's dressed in satin and lace

She makes me struggle to write honestly

because I am ashamed of my humility

Distracted and dissected

I ask myself silly things

What are the sentiments for clouds?

Who is going to send in the clowns?

Why do they bury the father

who would greet me upon my rise?

And must they enshroud the mother

who would caress me as the day dies?

I know your sun will look different from mine

colder and older and blinding as snow

But I know he will bring hope to you

feed you and bless you and see your music through

I pray that your moon remains the same as mine

painted with stars like a porcelain doll

For she will bring comfort to you

and subdue my tears into weak morning dew

Published in Mythos Anthologie: Vol 1 (2022)

Slowly I watched as you fell out of your body

Your hair grew longer but never changed length

Your eyes always open but never shone blue

Arms and legs and hands and feet,

broken and lost to the abyss of memory

I caught each word as it tumbled from your disappearing lips

Like a ribbon wrapped around my fingers,

you were there when I wanted comfort

Like moonglow warming the night sky,

you where there when I wanted safety

What the body cannot hold,

the soul can only release

I imagined I knew you as the maple knows an autumn breeze

Preserving your laughter like wildflowers pressed in a book

Setting your kindness like lyrics woven into song

But as the trees lost their leaves,

your beauty crumbled at my feet

Published in Makarelle "Love is Love" Magazine (2022)

The Sand Dunes

The dream left abruptly that day

My eyes searching, hands reaching

You lay beside me still asleep

Your face dozing, body resting

 

“What if we ran away together?”

I ask with rash sincerity

“Tomorrow?”

You say with honest hilarity

 

“We’ll get in the car and go

The wind in our hair, the sun on our—"

You stop my cliches with your lips

Smile, and answer, “I know just the place”

Allemande

Close your eyes, it’s all here!”

You quietly shut the door

“Roll over, I’ll show you”

We lay blankets down on the floor

 

“Your sole is our home”

As you kiss my heart through my foot

“But your thigh is our highway,

Lie still. I’m tracing the route”

 

Your fingers connect my freckles

As you hitchhike across my hips

“A road trip over the rug?” I laugh.

“The destination is your lips!”

Corrente

Then, in a whisper, “Tell me about your dream.”

 

“I was lying on a beach

Watching giant cats swim on by

Sleek, like jaguars,

Their coats glistening beneath the sky

 

One swam ashore to greet me

With a sketch book in his teeth

I scratched the big cat’s belly

And flipped the pages at my feet

Messages from a marooned man and

Pleas for help filled the book

Somehow, I needed to rescue him

But there was no time, I just woke.”

Sarabande

“How did you expect to find him?”

A smile sneaking across your face

“You had no compass, no directions

You’d be lost forever in dream space!”

 

Tears well as my voice cracks

“Because I knew it was you.”

Salt drips down my cheeks

“Because I couldn’t lose you.”

 

“But sweetheart, I already fixed it!”
Your teasing scatters my fears

“I’ve already drawn you a map

And you can always find me here.”
 

Gigue

Your lips bless my forehead

Then my neck, then my chest

A prayer enclosed with four hands

Laid together upon my breast

 

“Follow my fingers across your freckles

Feel my breath warm your heart

Wrap my soul round your body

Then we’ll never be apart.”

Chaconne

Performed alongside J.S. Bach's Partita in D minor at Poets in Paisley December 2022

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