RISKS
Scarred hills, risked mine shafts, dark and deep.
The plonk of a stone, dropped into water, far below.
Kids drifted to sounds of the gold-rush, pick and windlass.
But inside our school, Sir recruited afternoon classes into
battle. We piloted Spitfires, strafing Messerschmitts. Bingo!
The plane aflame, out of control. Drifting down, down. A spiral
of smoke.
Our teacher paced, face aglow. Alive to the tremble, the thrill,
in distant summer skies.
Windscreen hit, the scatter of shattered
glass. His odyssey of courage and blood …
At three thirty, older boys reminded Sir,
Time to go home.
Surprise in our mentor’s eyes .
His Spitfire hadn’t even landed.
Categories:
windlass, 3rd grade, adventure, courage,
Form: Free verse
The Old Ship-Wright
I’ve held the stars in the palm of my hand
And ladled the sunrise where no man has been
I’ve forged my anchors from hellish fires
And planed fine teakwood that served the Queen’s tea
But now my sun sets quicker than mice
That hide like stowaways burdened with lice
My ship has set sail on my final voyage
My trusted windlass asleep in the well
The sailor, the mill-wright, my names aplenty
I’m proudest of ship-wright
Naught trade for a two-penny
Tho’ my booms sweep my memories ‘fore and aft
My fleet of ships were built to last
08/03/10
9:37pm
Categories:
windlass, adventure
Form: Narrative
Through a canopy of leaves
ascending ,
Night a visage of rippling ebony
her tears falling like raindrops
bedazzling the dark
Her arm a windlass
spiraling coils of silken mist
rolling , heaving , becoming as ether
Sweeping specks of light in her wake
Chevaliers her dark companions
Lurking nocturnally
darkness their mask
A Grotesque masquerade
beauty at its bleakest
blood soaked rags their Armour
her sentinels forever watchful
Moon mirror to darkness
revealing nights face
Past images ,
forgotten horrors and vast beauty
her muniment of time
Tributaries of tears lining a face
bereft of life
She moves as slow water
Her velvet veils
held aloft by dancing night imps
Night’s appetite
An unsated desire
for shadow and shade
these are her feast
Quenching her thirst
greyness her fine wine
Goddess,
Drunk on her own spirit
Lulls and wanes
But night goes on
moon chimes time
Darkness must regather
her chevalier’s ! her night imps !
She never rests
her hunger never sated
As she is night silently she moves on
Forever divergent from light
Embracing and becoming darkness
Goddess of night
Categories:
windlass, fantasynight, dark, dark, night,
Form: Free verse
Jumpers taste the air tonight
Black jelly fish ballooning into clouds and stars
Slick of lip and jeweled of eyes
breaking the wind with outspread fingers
Pushing gravity on their bellies
A thousand pins to bed on air
with cheeks blown back to smiling teeth
they taste the jump, adrenaline breath-
And we wait.
On our backs in fields of wheat,
watching them slam the atmosphere's skin
and bullet on invisible feathered waves
Perhaps it's excitement on two ends of the spectrum
which pull us together and push us apart
One, as the jumper, in infinite motion
One, as the watcher, in infinite heart.
Categories:
windlass, adventure,
Form: Free verse