Ever

You would have loved me once back then

When supple symmetry had endless form

Butterflies wincing in the syncopated light

Drunk on moonshine like twisted kites

Danced soft across these breaking rafters

Taut words eked out from these tongues

And the night was no longer than a stolen song

The sun never rose with the lilies still white

The caress of their silk on the dark lake still bright

It was only a moment but it captured us there

With wet grass on our naked feet, the warm dusk shadowing our jasmine scented hair

The air hung so heavy with that cosy promise, like a blanket to ward off the coming cold

I never thought we would ever shiver, ever be still, ever be old

You would have told me not to be foolish,

That glint in your eye brighter than any moon,

Foxes arching their backs against the dawn, claws drawn to stop it coming too soon

These little red riding hoods taunting the wolves

The moths shedding dust from their starry cocoons

Magic intangible but it shrouded us then, like gossamer sheaths from a spider web

With dew droplets twinkling, enchanting us in

I was never so whimsical as when, you told me no fairies played in the den

And no wicked beast beset our door, no stars light-fandangoed and tangoed the floor

No princes lay waiting in fat bellied frogs, and no mice tapdanced in tiny clogs

I only knew you loved me more, for the things I couldn’t prove to you

But still adored

I know you don’t remember how, we plucked fresh fruit from a glossy bough

Your shoulders dipping beneath my feet, like pixies clambering and stumbling to reach,

The chrysalis dried and the dust that fell, was grey, just powder, no glitter now

Like Hansel losing your way on the path, a witch’s apple that took your grasp

And made the world look snow-storm broken, and left you with nothing but ribbons and tokens

A butterfly that crawled inside your skull, its trapped wings beating like a syncopated flutter

Tossing your memories till you faltered and stuttered

You’re eking away from me, one petal at a time, drowning on a lake of fading time

And whimsy now addled and rhyme, seeps away muddled and I no longer know

The scent of jasmine from the stench of musk

On the blanket I wrap you in, tangible wool,

And you shiver so lost in this cold clammy dusk

You would have loved me once back then

If you could still see the fairy princess within, if you knew of the prince you were and when

The glass slippers fitted my feet like a glove

But only you could throw them off

And chase me ragged round sea beaten rocks, across heather bound moors

Like Peter Pan chasing the tenacious croc

How I’d span the earth and sell the stars

To fix you now my broken clock

That twice a day is yet still right

When the words tumble from your tongue, muttered and slight

Of those moon-drenched lullabies in perfect nights

And in those moments, my stolen songs

I still see you, fox-quick, a darting kite

Chasing my phosphorous butterfly across the lake

Keeping our page in this fairytale,

So I know that somewhere

In these hollow dark rafters

We lived forever, ever happily after