I've Got To Go

A Poem by Terry O'Leary

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(the reasons why you’ll never know),

whisked away in winter’s winds, your sleeping sighs remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Well, I’ve often made my way

within the dark before the day,

but it’s never that I’ve ever felt this lonely.

So I leave this parting note,

the first farewell I ever wrote,

though these lines embody more than farewell only.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go,

’n what I’ll find you’ll never know,

concealed in clouds of untamed clover, tussled hair reminds me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Alas, my love has grown too strong

for I’ve lain with you so long

with your every need perceived, though never spoken.

’n as I try to disengage,

I’m like a tiger in a cage,

hesitating ’fore a padlock hanging broken.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(across a bridge you’ll never know),

to quench abandoned burning hills, your yearning lips remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Should you wake and shed a tear

finding me no longer here,

save your weeping for another, not so ghostly.

’n if you scan the spangled sky,

as you ache when asking why,

realize ’twas really you I wanted mostly.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(reshuffling cards you’ll never know),

defying fate beneath the stars, your diamond eyes remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Shun the shadows in the late

disappearing through your gate,

aghast and groping through their early morning sorrows,

like the echoes of my thought,

flitting, fleeting, overwrought,

as reflected in the realms of vague tomorrows.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(’n what I’ll see you’ll never know),

pursuing pebbles on a beach, your freckled nose reminds me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Should you glimpse a troubled form

within a restless ruby storm,

turn your collar 'gainst the wind and never follow.

For by then it’s much too late

(yes the distance far too great)

and you’d only find the feathers of a swallow.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(along a road you’ll never know),

adrift on half-forbidden paths, your slender back reminds me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Should you yearn once more to tease,

unleash your breath upon a breeze

’n let the whispered winds of yesterday caress me,

and perchance recall the time

(when our love was in its prime),

I relied upon your laughter to possess me.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(’n it’s so hard you’ll never know),

entwined in twirls of fortune’s wheel, embracing arms remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Once I was yours and you were mine

sipping pearls of purple wine �"

except these haunting hints, there’ll be no spectres chasing.

’n if the flashbacks grow acute,

I’ll strum the strings upon my lute

subduing bygone ancient ghosts, still standing, facing.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go,

’n what I’ll hear you’ll never know,

though echoed in a thousand drums, your throbbing breasts remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Well, the candle by my side

has now melted down and died,

though its fire blazes on within the mirror.

And the clock behind the door

is throbbing, pounding with a roar,

as my moment to depart approaches nearer.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(along a shore you’ll never know),

engulfed in deep and distant tides, your restless thighs remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

But I’ll take along the ring,

the one you carved for me in spring,

though it journeyed as an orphan on my finger.

And I’ll hang it from my neck

while I tramp a lonesome trek,

as a keepsake of your ardor, while it lingers.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go

(’n what I’ll see you’ll never know),

immersed in fields of flowers wild, your amber eyes remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

phantom memories a’ chasing close behind me.

Now I’ll kiss your sleeping eyes

ere I mount the blushing skies

as I bid farewell, adieu, in morning’s splendour.

Then I’ll fade within the haze,

immured in miles of my own maze

as I wander, breaking chains of love’s surrender.

I’m on my way, I’ve got to go,

’n when I rue you’ll never know

the pulsing passions of the past and shadows that remind me.

And I’ll ramble where I please,

sometimes slipping to my knees,

till the phantoms start a’ fading far behind me.

© 2018 Terry O'Leary

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Featured Review

Anindita Janhabee

New and unique.... quite long and descriptive with lots of sentiments related... easy to read but difficult to understand... It did fill a sense of unity as well as eternity in the soul... really amazing piece to read, nice flow of words...
one suggestion - the word 'why' should be replaced with 'which' in the 2nd line of 1st stanza. Well, it was only a suggestion, you must prefer your choice...
very good words used, liked a lot!!!
Anindita