Black Sails

A prolific singer, you mimic songs of Blue Jays - From the poem, The Mockingbird by Vijay Pandit* BLACK SAILS You charleton! I believed you when the full moon stopped overhead, when the breeze like a quilt wrapped around me with warm heat, when your fingers flirtatiously covered the holes of your flute, my pet — you once were all that, and I believed you. What a fool was I for the entreaty of love. Oh how those vibrating lips fiddled with my ears. The charm, like a waterfall imbued with a rainbow. It sang like a buzzword from Tristan — oh if only I had pretended black sails, forfeited your love back then. Instead this slavegirl jangled her dowry skirt toward the storm. Your puppy dog eyes, like a shepherd’s — I didn’t see the leper underneath. The claws of your paws like a lion’s in manic kill. Yet, I saw what I wanted to see. You’d stroke my hair at dawn ~ how’d I miss the threatening tug, the mock of your arsenic tongue. No, Romeo, I’d not die for you; I’d kill for… Oh but my eyes fill with cerulean skies, palm branches that cool me down, your lyrical laughter, the brawn of your arms — robust waves. And as I die, poisoned by the arrow of heartbreak, this poicephalus cues a prolific singer, you mimic songs of Blue Jays.* 4/13/2020 Poetic lines from a Poetry Soup poet - Vijay Pandit Poetry Contest Sponsor: Silent One Note: A poicephalus parrot is not very smart