“Contemplation VIII”

 

My star?

 

Where would it be...

            the one that watches over me,

            the one I dream on,

the one that fastens my locks behind my ear 

like a whisper

            dropped by hurried kisses?

 

From the deepest center of the sky

            a ray of light

            slips from a nest of lies as if to

comfort an old ache...

            there were those words--cold words in the

wake of accidental carresses.

 

With every beat of my heart my soul

            stretches

like the spreading diaphanous shadow

            of a spirit that dreams,

            and forgives.

 

Through the clattering branches

            a winter moon caught in the trees

            watches me.

            She is full of longing, and without sleep.

“Your light is brilliant, like the

            white arctic plains

and your halo,

a ring of ice like circles of sadness

            outward and still,

            your sigh is heavy and thick.”

 

Was it too much love upon your unforgiving breast?

That you could die

            like the hope of a man of clay;

 

Wondrous moon, intrepid moon star--

I will free you from your

            mist of longing

and see you rise

            pale and winsome once more.

 

Float above the trees, my dear,

            and leave with me, your veil of spun frost.

 

My hands hold a thousand words or more of love and

            rust;

and my eyes the tears of many you will destroy.

 the dock and other poems