Vice-Versa #9 @ Poets United

And you never said
nor offered

anything
other than
farewell

The impression of your body
lies sleeping beside me
no warmth or skin
for me to see
simply the
sound of your whispered

follow

And I did
through gray Sundays
scattered
broken
and upended
on the porch

Through scorched
mornings
where the burning
embers of your absence
crested the sunrise
to streak across a discolored sky

There was nothing tangible
no tactile sensation
to lead me to you

Yet
there you are

a suggestion
of who we once were

that unusual couple
as Ray and Jen once called us
with a giggle and a glass of Sav Blanc

Rare gems
glimmering in the diffused
light of late afternoon
slanting beams of each other
carving the porch into
latticed designs
of here now

and gone tomorrow

Connections

A lover

I never had

came to me recently

carried on the vagaries of the internet
she drifted against my picture
and stopped to speak

I do not recognize you
she said

either do I 
 I replied

Then she moved on
sailing to distant memories
on other IP's

leaving me with

a face I thought was mine

and a vague feeling
of unease

Dreams

And all those ghosts
that chase me
round and round my brain

are just the lovers
I never thought
I'd see again 


 

Water

Moon Version 


water waits

patient

sound of splash

lap

upon stones.


Together we remove

skin

bone

question moments past


You told me

water recreates

paints us

in glistening strokes

draws us in

sculpts

liquid clay.


Together

we prepare ourselves

divest

belief systems

and dreams

lives

falling away

in the cool

embrace



You told me

water takes

steals breath

gives serenity

takes time

leaving forever





Original Version 


You told me

the water waits

patient

 the sound

of a splash

wise

the lapping

upon stones.


Together

we remove

ourselves

skin and bone

question and answer

moment and past


You told me

the water recreates

painting us

in glistening strokes

drawing us

in

sculpting

souls

in liquid clay.


Together

we prepare ourselves

divesting

belief systems

and dreams

lives

falling away

in the cool

embrace



You told me

the water takes

stealing breath

giving serenity

taking time

giving forever’s

Together
we wondered
 if it would be quite right
to slake our thirst
on the city skyline

or perhaps
drink in the grit and grime
running in rivers of decay over
my grubby feet and your designer heels

There is a dumpster telling stories to vagrants
snippets of lives and businesses
secreted in the chipped blue painted walls
it spits out stale pizza
and the clues to a murder
with equal ambivalence

The coughing of the street
interrupts and annoys
cars
choking on themselves
trucks
trundling into the earth
moving shaking
making the sound of the street
a deep resonating bass throb

Passersby share nothing
but little bits of the world
Cantonese slipping seamlessly
into the contralto hum of
Italian as converstations come to us
caress us, then move away
to cafe's and cars
to stores with doors agape
begging and luring in
wide open sultry invitation

We settle on rickety wooden seats
made for small bottoms
you look at all the thighs
spilling over the sides

as the coffee arrives
cold
sugary
served with disdain
the pencil thin gay waiter
glances perfunctorarily
at my crotch
force of habit
rather than genuine interest

We become the blur
another splash of colour
thrown against rough brick walls
seeping into the mortar
joining the riot
the cacophony

The skyline dips down
falling into our open mouths

how

deeply deeply

we do drink
 

You are
 the epitome of distance
and I have become
the rumpled answer to
a question you never asked

Nature turned her back on us,
took her warmth and loving embrace
from our lives
and left us
bleached branches
washed up on a dreary shore

A finger
of wood
to jut into the sky
accusing God and his minions
of deceit
of abandonment

of telling lies


You do not weep
so often now
the tears you gave
so freely
I gathered into a cracked basin
to wash my face with each morning
for

your sadness
cleansed not only
my skin

Atonement
or abasement
I have neither
and offer no such simple solutions

I prefer to continue

for continuance
is a beam of
truth
pulling us back into synchronicity

You are
the epitome of distance
and I
the rumpled belief
you can hold onto
a little longer

Ime

The ipod ipad iphone clatter clutter 

a smooth black seduction 
for fingers and minds 
the caress of touch screen 
pulling us to
high resolution dreamscapes

An app a day
keeps sanity away

and we
will never
be alone again

I talk to your down turned face
the curve of your concentration
arcing beyond me
to Ipeeps
and we-don't-sleep
but its ok
face book will be there
when I am dust 
and gone far away 

There is no buzz
nor hum
to warn us
no prickling skin
and stand up hairs
on the back of the neck

All the deepest human
fight or flight 
are dulled
in the soft screen glow
of Iknow

I seek silence
in your voice
a surcease 
a way to implore you
put it down
turn it off
leave it be



You fail to see
that without you
I can not possible be
nor never find
or never know


Ime