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All posts for the month October, 2012

The Fortune

Published October 22, 2012 by rlmcdermott

I am not afraid!

I have lived with death
so long that it’s a friend,
a flower growing in a garden
yet to be discovered–
a song unwritten.

This was meant to be,
you and I,
this never meeting,
this always being met.

I’ll stand beside you,
I’ll walk the walk
until the road grows steep
and flowers bend their heads.

I’ll be the love that lets you go,
the love that never leaves;
I’ll live a thousand lifetimes
and die a thousand deaths
until I find you in the paper trees,
the silver moon, the polished stone.

I’ll be all autumn and all spring,
the seasons of my love will never cease,
and I will bring you home again
where home has never been.

Eurydice’s Last Words to Orpheus

Published October 7, 2012 by rlmcdermott

I knew that
it would burn
but I wanted
one more chance
to feel the heat.

Fire is as fire
does–it turns
to ashes all
it loves.

Up the narrow
path I went
riding shotgun
on my art–

the god ahead
was not a god
but just a man.

Inside the flame
I could not hear
whose name
he called;

I thought it mine
but I was wrong–
the song was beautiful
but it was not my song.

A woman scorned
is just a woman
scorned but I am
so much more;

and so, I’ll keep
my hand inside
the flame

and he will never know
the stillness of my fire,
the beauty of my name.

The Spindle

Published October 4, 2012 by rlmcdermott

I think of women
sitting at their looms
and sunny afternoons
spent reading fairy tales

I think of red-haired boys
in cowboy hats and sailor suits
running home from school

this poem’s for me it’s not for you

I say goodbye not
because you weren’t
there but because
you didn’t try

you lied and that’s the truth

these are the things of my life
an empty loom
a red-haired boy
a memory of you

goodbye to love
it wasn’t real
I made it up
to help me feel alive

now spindle cells have stopped me dead

and I cannot pretend
that what I hold is thread