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We Came From Different Worlds
we came from different worlds
cowboy boots and motorcycle
she carried pen and paper as did i
hers was to communicate with the world
mine was the labor in poems
i walked the high iron
she taught the deaf to speak
a chance meeting we ended up
sitting on a bench where
she taught me to speak sign language
why the deaf struggle with metaphors
i brought the world of poetry
to her beloved hands
with the patience of love
conquered the metaphor barrier
no easy task when it is a struggle
between face and hands
two competing jewels, a vertigo
where love captures you struggling
finding balance in a whirlpool of awe
filling my quill, ever softly behind me
hands upon my shoulder
a light kiss to my head
and the lines danced before me
i never heard my name
escape those lips
yet when i would appear from shadows
it lay so softly in the heavens of her eyes
we never shared those audible moments
when passions run as white water to the sea
that lover's exchange defining each ecstasy
her face gripped me in angelic commands
i, a knight errant, ever attentive to each
her wants never needed language
her body spoke in a desire
of cupidity succumbing to a lava
roaring into the volcanic finality
no long conversations followed
we lay in our silent world heaven spent
later in embers lost in long speak
a ballet of hands
our fingers danced
in dreams to come
we could enter a monastery
disappear from the world
should they come looking
the vow of silence, the world turned away
spend our days toiling in a garden
preparing delights in the kitchen
taking the silence deeper in the chapel
she taught me the song
in the swaying tree
metronomes at God's command
the dance in limbs lost
in the bewitchment of winds
a waltz-only quietude unravels
where the Blue Danube plays
nary a note, yet music abandons itself
and they are lost as any Vienna Woods
in the rapture as they swirl in unison
step arms in arms, side by side, glide
unable to hear the Robin sing
she never strayed from watching
every hop had her undivided attention
taught me to revel in a butterfly's flight
enjoy the choreography
deep in a nano-second
quickly stretching into infinity
wandering in the ardor of enchantment
of wafting wings in pursuit of life
her finger on my lips meant
use your mind, words will fail you
color has no sound, they are notes on a scale
a concerto in silent pathways in the mind
they have always been waiting for you
dormant gifts God gave as you left
we had many small gestures between us
as a Chinese character, object, concept
or idea, such as time to leave the noise
we lived in a world without the din
an impediment that deepened our souls
we were blessed to live in God's quiet
now as i sit on the balcony
moon in its' primary phase
the mockingbird's call for a mate
echoes thru my heart
as a mortally wounded animal
from those angels who stole my silence
a translator who has lost translation
returned to the empty din of life
where the mockingbird's mournful cry
fills the moonlit night
where the forever empty bench
where poetry has fallen into quietude
where life's din meanders by a road kill
where tears hide within a morning's dew
where the ravens feasted on my heart
OKC 7/22
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like the other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
by John Donne
enjoy music, singing and dancing with the Deaf
on Youtube:
Pharell's "Happy" in ASL Deaf Film Camp
Copyright ©
Timothy Ray
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