I have a confession to make,
an obvious thing, like a cardinal perched on the back of a white Adirondack chair.
There's a hint of smoke on the air,
slight yet insistent as I still imagine your body to be,
not altered by time,
even as my boots kick leaves gone strangers to the trees.
I still think of you,
no matter the closing door of my words.
A neighbor's burn barrel glows in the dusk
giving only the notion of warmth, across the yards.
The truth is, I burn down for you sometimes, even now.
I blaze, bend, lose cohesion and fall to ash.
Something reminds me of your face,
your October hair,
your old desire,
and I fall,
red and solitary as a maple leaf,
silent but still in love with you.
______
for Sunday Muse #133.
This is breathtaking and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where to start. Just... fantastic. Your language takes us right into the burning barrel but then saves us lands like a fallen leaf. "my boots kick leaves gone strangers to the trees" -- outstanding. "your October hair, / your old desire, / and I fall" -- g*ddamn.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of repeating one of my habitual observations, no one in the history of the planet writes love poems like you. You got me at "the closing door of my words.," and took me directly into a turbulent yet sweepingly beautiful sea of emotions I thought had long evaporated. I'm not sure if it's entirely painless to remember them, to feel again what it is to burn down your own heart, but I know it is worth it. Just superb writing, Shay, especially the last six lines, but also that amazing fourth one.
ReplyDeleteSome old loves seem to lurk in the attic of our brains, coming alive again when we least expect them. Beautifully penned!
ReplyDeleteMy words cannot do justice to these glorious and gorgeous lines!! As Joy said no one writes of love as deeply moving as you do my friend!! I am in awe and delighted!
ReplyDeleteThe highly original images you come up with always amaze me. I can SEE that cardinal on the back of an Adirondack chair! And the leaves gone strangers to the trees. And oh, the message and closing lines of your poem. The burning down to ash, the "still in love with you." Sigh. Achingly beautiful .
ReplyDeleteYes. Always.
ReplyDeleteThis reads good, Shay, tugging at me still over for years and years. But I'm not bothered by it much anymore. The lines, "Something reminds me of your face, your October hair, your old desire, and I fall," played and played. But then at a wedding a couple of years back she was there, next to me in grandparent's row. We chatted but she wasn't the person I had been remembering, especially her face and her height, she seemed tall and her face was large.
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Thank you for reading my write and for your nice comment.
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Shay--Each time you write a love poem, I ache. Each one is gorgeous, and shows your vulnerability. Each one I think is my favorite... and then you write another.
DeleteThis one is seriously my favorite love poem of yours. ;)
Amazing writing, Shay. I am sitting in the Adirondack
ReplyDeletechair with the cardinal, kicking leaves gone strangers
to trees, and smelling October hair.
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ReplyDeleteThis hit me right in the heart of my "feels". There are so many things that arrive in the change of seasons that tear me into memories. This is so beautifully written.
ReplyDelete“The truth is, I burn down for you sometimes, even now.
ReplyDeleteI blaze, bend, lose cohesion and fall to ash.
Something reminds me of your face,
your October hair,
your old desire,
and I fall,
red and solitary as a maple leaf,
silent but still in love with you.”
This is some of the most stirring, earthen-fingers-in-the-soul love poetry I’ve read.
I miss your love poems. I hope you write more like this.
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