she was
a glutton's for a sadness feast
so i spun her a tale from my years ago
the wooden toy boat
ice bound in the stone fountain's water
trapped in its flight across its own vast sea
the sound of her sailors wrestling the seas
and her captain forever standing lone watch over his beloved craft
all there in absolute detail
the wooden toy boat

the statues of cherubs in perpetual dance look down
on this stranded voyager
from their grey unwashed stone tower
their stone fingers clutching at the hem
of some goddess of the ancient world
as if to plead for some favour of her attentions
for her to free this voyager and give her kind winds
but in this barren winterscape
nothing is without its semblance of shade
and the cherubs were a dangerous jealousy
their childlike eyes forever longing to be grown
forever longing to be free of such cold stone pantomime of life

barren trees are blackened and forlorn against
the frame of a slate grey sky
a few flurry's of snow scatter and dance on descent into
the absolution of their frailty in the eyes of the wakened dreamers
that all such frail things like the promise of dreams
slowly fades with the dreamers tears

the wooden toy boat
carries with it still the images of its makers dream
its proud sail unfurled
and its standard flowing in the crisp breezes
but the child who abandon it here
lay in his room miles distant in mind from
this cast aside toy
dreaming his own dreams of
building great towers from which he
could look down upon the world

the wooden toy boat
its forever seeking of a fabled port
its forever wishing for its safe harbour
i dream of this moment thoughtful of its strange fate
am i the boy moved on to create ever greater towers in the sun
or the toy locked forever in a yesterday's dreamers eye