Mercury (Messenger)

I’ve searched for heaven

Behind the teacup stashed

All the way in the back

Of the cupboard; in pantries

 

And inside chocolate confections,

Inside an apple, in the five seeds

Shaped like a magic star.  In rituals:

Cutting my hair, brushing my teeth.

 

I looked for it in others’ crooked fingers

And their hidden places: in their hair

And behind their ears, their mouths,

In the lines that run mystic on their palms.

 

I once even tried to find heaven

In the grave: in its ruddy panels,

Beneath the flaming oak and its

Fiery litany of October and leaves.

 

In my monitor, I saw the light of stars

Aligning and of planets dancing, a sound

Resounded like a trumpet and a message

Appeared from nowhere on my screen.

 

I never knew your timidly typed words,

Like faulted window hinges, led to heaven.

Just ajar.  I saw my end and my beginning

As the ellipsis announced you were about to…

 

 

Reviews

[shel]

Hmmm. I like this...stanzas 2-4 especially...the apple seeds, lines running mystic, fiery litany of October...
I've always found it difficult when writing to make the shift from the tactile/organic to technology, which is so sterile in contrast...but I think you handled it well by working in the metaphors of stars, the trumpet (like angels) and window hinges. and that ending is curious...

[Bonny Blanchard]

I agree with Shel.
I like the journey you've given us. We follow this path through the careful, simple forgotten things... Through indulgences to the sweetness in nature(and in closer examination, its majesty). Yourself. Others. In desperation, darkness, which is the last place one is to look for the purity of heaven.

Then almost right under your nose and with the help of timing and fate, you find a glimpse. The imagery with the planets was clever, as well as the ending.

[Sophia Argyris]

I've been looking around for something great to read today, not having a whole lot of luck and then I found this. I love the imagery, the idea of looking in all those little places, and I particularly like the last stanza.

'I never knew your timidly typed words,
Like faulted window hinges, led to heaven.'

Wonderful.

[Poeticpiers]

We create our own heaven or hell right here and now.