Mar 2024
THE CICADAS GOING CRAZY
The night all
darkness and lilac
as if scent and absence
of light had solidified
congealing about
the waltzing couple
drifting accidentally
on purpose away
from the gaudy
ballroom.
Both now not
daring to
breath in case this
moment would dissolve
the magic
evaporate.
His clumsy hand upon her
naked back for the first
time ever
this forever
the flex of her
shoulder blades as if
she were a swan
about to take flight
and be gone...gone
that terrible thought
tolling inside his head.
They only able to see
each other by touch
alone
feeling his breath upon
her right eyebrow
she nuzzling into
an Adam's apple that
kept bobbing up
ooops and that was
not all.
He lost in the bob
of her hair
she only had it done
that day.
Their hips brushing against
lilac and darkness
dancing on into
the witching hour
the fadey ballroom music
like an half forgotten
something or other
the cicadas sudden
silence
dissolving into
this mistimed kiss
that nevertheless
he kissed an eye
she kissed a nose
that still
took time's breath away
the cicadas
going crazy.
*
An old lady in a nursing home telling me about the young lady she used to be( and still is)and of her first beau at some big Great Gatsby type ball back in the days of her far flung youth and a world war about to rage and take away her young man who she would never see again. She replayed this one moment in her mind over and over again so that by the end I felt I had lived it tool. I showed her the poem and she used to stroke the words lovingly and touch them and kiss them.
The night all
darkness and lilac
as if scent and absence
of light had solidified
congealing about
the waltzing couple
drifting accidentally
on purpose away
from the gaudy
ballroom.
Both now not
daring to
breath in case this
moment would dissolve
the magic
evaporate.
His clumsy hand upon her
naked back for the first
time ever
this forever
the flex of her
shoulder blades as if
she were a swan
about to take flight
and be gone...gone
that terrible thought
tolling inside his head.
They only able to see
each other by touch
alone
feeling his breath upon
her right eyebrow
she nuzzling into
an Adam's apple that
kept bobbing up
ooops and that was
not all.
He lost in the bob
of her hair
she only had it done
that day.
Their hips brushing against
lilac and darkness
dancing on into
the witching hour
the fadey ballroom music
like an half forgotten
something or other
the cicadas sudden
silence
dissolving into
this mistimed kiss
that nevertheless
he kissed an eye
she kissed a nose
that still
took time's breath away
the cicadas
going crazy.
*
An old lady in a nursing home telling me about the young lady she used to be( and still is)and of her first beau at some big Great Gatsby type ball back in the days of her far flung youth and a world war about to rage and take away her young man who she would never see again. She replayed this one moment in her mind over and over again so that by the end I felt I had lived it tool. I showed her the poem and she used to stroke the words lovingly and touch them and kiss them.
