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Smitten in rushes
Woods beyond danced— urging us
Wild winds in her hair
.
 Jul 2019 Sam Clemens
r
She’s a mystery
the slight curves
of her face
framed
by dark waves
lips shaped
like the wake
of a ship
parting the sea
as deep as deep
eyes I can see
staring back at me.
i gave up on writing
the first time i heard you speak

now
     even my own words mean nothing to me

no pen could procreate the sweetness slung by your tongue


what's left to be said
     hasn't even got a proper spelling
 May 2017 Sam Clemens
r
I dreamed you came aboard
to commend me to the sea
and I dreamed you rode a horse

to your wedding sidesaddle
even though the only thing
you let between your legs

was the melancholy strings
of the cello, you with your instinct
for music and dangerous suitors

I still place to this day what is left
of the afternoon in care of your hands
kissed by so many strange men

whose names you can't remember
on the long nights we spend
together without sleeping

in the same bed alone we are
dreaming the dreams
we dream when all love is lost.
 May 2017 Sam Clemens
r
It is almost summer
and the hot night
seems so quiet
as the wind on the water
lifts the sails on that ship
sailing west like smoke
from the fire I lit
to burn the driftwood
of my dreams and desires
until morning comes like
that sad-eyed Moriah
I've admired from afar.
 Dec 2016 Sam Clemens
r
Black smoke on the mountain
bends over the moon like flies
around rines all fed up
with the night, like a bloated
face floating by in the river
sleeping through
death's long montage,
that dark mistress sipping
gin on a balcony with no wind,
her curtains still as a blanket
placed over the drowned.
What a thing it is to claim a smile.
To grant command
to ranks of muscles ever-ready,
but rarely used,
to produce such radiance
that means I must turn away lest I be blinded.
Regardless of all other commitments
I lay claim to that smile of yours
if only unofficially
if only just for now.
 Apr 2015 Sam Clemens
Sjr1000
There is always reluctance
an airy breeze
in the hot room
stinging
whispering
"no no no".

It comes with change
it comes with
beginnings and endings
reluctance comes no matter what
in frozen dread
in anticipation read,
how far is it
from here to there
and to where
and to whom
do we go?

Reluctance in fear
seems to know
what you are most afraid of
but no matter so,
put on your dancing shoes
pull out
your roller skates
too.

Time's a storm
that's blowing through
though your sails
maybe tattered
it doesn't matter
it's moving you.

Reluctance
certainly has its say
in an impotent kind of way.
Choices made
not made
While we all grow a little bit older
grow a little bit wiser
each and every day,
Reluctance
is
going to grab you
make you see its way.
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