Flutterfluffing of downy goose
rocks tempest princess port-starboard.
Bed tiers for bride-to-be. Steep steps
of ladder, up t’ward skylight, soared.
Twenty tidal wave mattresses.
Jacky’s seed sprouts into beanstalk.
Ripples of corpulent stitching -
siren depths that bruise like bedrock.
Schlepping sleep on stone-wet pillows.
Won’t Gorgo* make a gorgeous bride?
Honeybuzz of beehive tangles.
The slip and slide of nightmare ride.
The feasible mother-in-law
conjured guest into blue-sea room.
Testing of oars and humpback whale.
Full moon is gold and so is groom.
Oh how this royal navigates.
She’s the sunrise, light as feather.
The salty air will pinch her cheeks.
She’s survived balmier weather.
1/21/2021
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
Sponsor: Craig Cornish
*Gorgo - Medusa
Poem a tribute to fairytale: The Princess and the Pea
I am the granddaddy of this tree line
Used to be the strongest, mightiest evergreen here
The others sprung up renegade, one by one
Now I am but a stump of my former glory.
I guess this happens in old age.
I am the most sought after, however
When people come to wait for rides.
I am the only place to sit.
The winters are balmier now,
Today we have snow, which I love
But only a dusting.
I am disappointed that the highway is clear
It is a lot more exciting when cars are stuck or crashing.
Lots of action, tow trucks, police cars,
Sometimes an ambulance with red lights.
Nothing much to do these days but watch
So here I sit, listening to the my great grandchildren
Speaking of me in whispered ways
They think I am senile, too old to hear
My hearing is that of a dog.
I could howl if I wanted,
but I choose to sit here listening,
flicking them out of my will one by one.
Like the distant sparkling stars
You are, always looking at me
And by serendipity
When I happen to come across you
Your smile sheds tumultuous hues
But to disappear like fugitive dew
Okay, my dear, let it be so
The secrets of distance I only know
Hands are best held when they are miles apart
Balmier are the touches of a distant heart
Oh, distant star, miles and miles apart
Your brief encounters are there still in my shirt
Tightening closeness loosens in some time
Distance keeps up loveliness of rhyme
That overwhelmed us with that heavenly sweat
Last time when we met:
“What do you see when you look at me?”
“From distant love how you set me free”
The distance is no hurdle but a feel so sweet
When sleep eludes me I do listen to your heartbeat
And fall asleep into a boundless deep….
Inside the embroidered steep
Again the tap on the window
In a starry voice of lovely low
“What do you see when you look at me?”
“Those loves in the stars of your beautiful poetry”
____________________________________________
June 10, 2016
For the Distant Things – Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: John lawless
Note: The plural form of love I have used consciously
Sea of blue drifts to a balmier port of call
Last satiating beams from soaring canopy sprawl
From distant, seamless divide swarthy portents fall
Nearer, a blood orange ridge ballasts spiralling ball
A mercurial prism swaggers on horizon as flittering shades draw
Satin clouds now tinged with streaks of gray into the porous rotunda withdraw
Twilight's encroaching shadows the availing light doth pall
As dusk's ashen shroud spreads its bleary shawl
Gilded eagles through the vapid recess trawl
Slowly Night's inky jets across the airy expanse do scrawl
As Sailor's moon from the darken undertow doth crawl
Anon, twinkling sprites appear each prancing freely in designated stall
A galaxy of flood lights dancing blithely in sable hall