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
I never saw eyes so green in my whole life Green green like velveteen moss after the rains fall Wise like the mighty old oak where I sheltered Protected and cool in the youth speckled shade Dark green like the mystery ship in the bottle My father placed on the mantelpiece Inside with its
Each dawn she was, a shadow of him, hunched, faltering, pale The sympathetic eyes watched, hands twitching all thinking “Is it but our fate, but our destiny to be the same?” Nobody moved and time inhaled as we sat waiting, not seeing In the rain and the wind she clung to him, oranges in her
