Your hand slipped in mine and we consented, damp fingers loosed The sultry night burned my nostrils welding white cotton to dark skin That neon buzz lit the star strewn boulevard and I faced you And we knew, like the etched idols below our feet that it had passed. Our golden age to be trodden
A lingering melody begins once more, out of key though I know it well Skinny twisted trees caught in fractured mirrors and ephemeral fairground lights In the snowy park, phantom horses prancing into the white, leaping from shadows A faded mirage of mighty hooves, their glossy veneers chipped and shedding Rough flakes of precious gold
The ocean calling pulls me from my grimy city dream, a mirage of cerulean depth Stumbling blindly towards the shore, a magnetic pull of my sign Weary limbs alive in liquid sapphire, an aqua medusa born to join them Each strand of hair a rainbow on the glittering surface worshipping the sunrise The shimmers play,
And they scattered as she stumbled through the gleaming square A black and white movie and her red satin shoes stained by rain Dress trailing on the silver lined pavement, tendrils damp to her shoulders Plumes of misty feathers rising in a low flustered cloud above her head An elusive snowy feather passes ghostlike through
Yours is a different moon that I set my sights upon The waning night sky dispersed in its pearlescent blush A dewdrop of oil in the liquid night sends stars scurrying Blurring its glow to a spacious rainbow haze, an amethyst balm Each land, a different moon for its own charcoal skyline Its beam reaching
And asleep in his arms as the sky turned saffron The distant winds cried, throwing crimson across the borderlines In the streets they implore the faithful to pray, that haunting echo Each ran faster than the next, saving his soul in the dusty night She dreamed as the light faded, a sugared milky dream Of
The silver tongued roses in that crystal vase you bought me Are too flawless for me and my tainted fingertips didn’t you know I detest their purity and radiance, layers of unattainable perfection Like sweet scented swans, heads held high, higher than mine Thorns protecting their loveliness from those who are unworthy Chastising the eager
Shining like gems in obscurity, your candy Polished Silver, True Gold, Valentine’s Red in the darkness I want to capture them for my magpie nest and keep them Cherished with secret keys, wind chimes and lovers rings To gaze at them whenever I want, to dream in candy colours I take one in my fingers,
In every limb Rusted shards of your words burrow deeply Metallic fragments in my veins They can’t remove them There are no heroes Limping bloodily onwards without rest Breathing in sharp splinters And holding them in And now the soft flesh Armour clad and battle ready Metal over metal, cold on cold No more shrapnel.
It left like a cloud, perspired from my being Drifted in the December air, evaporating with hot tears Swirled white in the sky with the gulls flying freely Dancing and spinning while I watched from the pier. I felt it leave, a sickening vacuum of nothingness If I were to slip through the wooden slats
