Candice James, Poet Laureate Emerita
New Westminster, BC CANADA
The cruel wind scrapes and rapes
the soft, supple, satin drapes
in the cave of evening shade.
Under gun metal sky,
cracked, splintered and dry,
we play our tragic masquerade.
On the mantle of doom
and foreboding gloom
we reach for this feeling we’re chasing.
We can’t quite grasp enough of it,
just a quicksilver touch of it,
this dream Daughter Time is erasing.
Then, I feel your heart slip,
so I tighten my grip
on the trembling lip of this storm.
Your body’s a river,
a fast running shiver
and I can’t seem to keep myself warm.
Engulfed by the ocean
and fading emotion,
you let go of my hand.
Tide sweeps you away
but bids my heart stay.
Nothing is as we planned.
waves wash me ashore,
lips parched evermore
never to taste yours again.
Love letters and pain,
left out in the rain,
became a fading ink stain.
Now - days without sun.
The moon’s come undone
and I...
I’ve become the rain.