Flickering Hands

on loving and losing

And sweet, if I shall never watch again

The morning sun embrace your thoughtless skin,

Nor ache to kiss your sweet and sleep-stained lips

That part and drink the lazy sunrise in;

If never I trace back the stars above,

Compare them to your chastened, starlit face;

And love you, kiss you, worship at your alter,

And swim in your galactical embrace;

If winter catches up with us before

The wilderness has faded from your eyes,

Before Bohemian hymns have fallen mute,

When in the air their final note still dies;

Then only know I find you in the skyline,

I trace your constellations in the dirt.

I sing your musings to the tune of birdsong,

I pen our passion to the tune of hurt.

I find you in the absence of a candle,

When one is one with nightmares and with sin.

I find you too when all is laughing colour,

But most of all when laughter trickles thin.

I find you when my tongue is trickling honey,

And when it whittles scandal out of spite.

I find you when on poetry it muses,

And when its biting words are quite contrite.

If in the Western bath I sink and drown,

And you are smothered in your chains so bright;

Then glow from holy glory! glow, my love,

No other sunrise could bequeath such light.

Forget me not, when daylight drowns the sailors

Who steer their ships amidst the endless sea.

When sun and moon return to dusty union,

Look to their ashes; there we two shall be.

Reviews

[Jess Greene]

Wow! That is truly amazing. I can't begin to explain how beautiful this poem is. The reader can really feel the love and passion in this poem. Again, so beautiful.

[Laurel Colyer]

thank you!