Have you been to Khartoum, The Black and White Island
Have you been to Khartoum? The Black and White Island?
Where memory, myth, and prayer merges into a haunting meditation on loss and regret?
As once intimate and cosmic events, turns isolation into a path toward repentance and the possibility of transcendence?
Title.
Khartoum.
The Black and White Island.
(A lone voice whispers)
As I lay here, under my apple tree
With my head on my pillow
Looking at my only treasure
A white feather by the sea
I can still remember the first time, The Ebb, and Flow came looking for me
And I witnessed all those old things once hidden,
when my eyes couldn't see
When it engulfed me in its fine mists, of secret memories
The mysteries
Insecurities
Jealousy
Lies
And all other forgotten things
That Ebb and Flow from beyond the Great Sea,
Brought to me
Forgotten moments
Missed chances
Last dances
And the loneliness of standing in a dark circle, of never-ending silence
Gripped knee-deep in the black sludge of the Highlands
And now alone on this island, in the middle of a black sea
With only a white pillow
White feather and an apple tree, for company
I still see her
Skin as soft and white as snow
Dressed in blue Levi jeans
White tee
And black high heels
Blue sharp eyes
Beautiful and blonde like a young smiling Marilyn Monroe
Resurrected by the swirling grey mists of the Ebb and Flow
Which touches all things and binds to the spine
The past
Present and future
For they are the Pole stars of all good and evil
The collector and receiver of all things made of matter on Earth
By making the forsaken see all those hidden missed moments and mistakes
Like when I let that girl ride on her horse called Wildfire
Right out of my paddocks gates
When my heart took shell fire from Desire's Gatling gun
Is that why I'm stuck on this lonely island in the middle of this Black Sea
Sentenced to lay underneath this great apple tree
Inscribed with the many etched in names of past visitors
With a white pillow and white feather for company
So Lord,
Until I find the Repentance candle, to climb higher out of this darkness
Haunted each night
By the Ebb and Flow
About the girl with blonde hair
Who looked like a young smiling, Marilyn Monroe
Wearing blue Levi's and a white tee
On a horse called Wildfire
Who I once let go
Oh, Lord, Please forgive me
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
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