Love

All posts tagged Love

Segundo

Published July 31, 2013 by rlmcdermott

what loves
you chooses
not to come
and so you’ve
lived your
life alone

sitting in
a tree
eating bark
fearful of
the night
and the
earth’s
dark song

you’ve
wondered
all these
years what
it would be
a man
a woman
a god
but there
was just
the tree

listen are
those footsteps
can you see
someone coming
is that a shadow
or just the moonlight
bending over to
listen to your heart

and that song
so bereft of
melody that
you listen
all night long
it’s like a voice
singing in your ear
of love and death
and the passing
of another yearSegundo

The Salt Doll’s Song

Published July 25, 2013 by rlmcdermott

if the
thing
you love
wears
you down
until you
disappear
then love
it from
a distance

the ocean
counts only
the sand
an attrition
that a salt doll
understands

taking the
high road
the blue
beat echoing
slap after slap
flesh on flesh
the sweet
cry of gulls
singing over
the bones
of civilizations
long lost to
the tongue
of memory

the task is
the weaning
away of love
a dissolution
this melting
down of limbs
grain by grain
until only the
taste of you remains.The Salt Doll

Fleeing Aristaeus

Published July 23, 2013 by rlmcdermott

I am
moving
too slowly
to be
alive
and the
red-tailed
hawk
circling
above
my head
has sensed
death.

We are
companions
here
in this
place
of syllable
and stress,
a formless
habitat,
where yellow
poppies
invite
themselves
into my
mouth.

I came
here with
the intention
of finding
the moon,
a thing lost
to me, but
found instead
one perfect
brown gaze
fixed on me
from across
a distance
of flesh and bone.

Soon the
daylight
will be
fading,
the hawk
will retreat,
and I
will be
alone–
a woman
who has
survived
a footrace
with a god
and the
misguided
longing
of a
hungry
raptorMoon

Echo’s Song

Published July 18, 2013 by rlmcdermott

all blue is blue
in this sad place

loving you has
not been easy

you were born
to sing and I
was born to listen
to that singing

where’s your voice
now here in this
place of small sounds
and of secrets

what is it that I love
your eyes hidden
your voice unheard
your pale skin yet
to be caressed

it must be the
sadness in your
wild heart the
fearless spirit
in one so afraid
to live apart from
his own story

why did the gods
whisper to me come
into the dark woods
and find his heart

Sweet Narcissus
some of us are never loved
we never know the flower
the moon’s reflection in a still lake
the smell of juniper and jasmineEcho

Nara

Published July 3, 2013 by rlmcdermott

The steps to the shrine were steep.

Young girls
dressed in
white were
selling fortunes.

A priest passed between two trees.

Someone was
calling my name,
sweet voices
in dark places;
I listened to
the small gods
and their promises.

The gray sky,
the bells ringing
through the hills,
the stone lanterns;
there was a price
to be paid that
spring day in Nara–
I didn’t know it
would be my heart.Nara

The Girl In The Green Dress

Published June 29, 2013 by rlmcdermott

it makes
sense
she says
to herself
they only
come to kill
not to love

seeing him
in the shadows
half naked
bright shield
held up
a speculum
a blue light
flickering
above a
white horizon

she could
not resist
her sister’s
huddled
beside her
weeping

all these
years waiting
surrounded
by stone
turning
to stone

she smelled him
in the darkness alive
music everywhere
women wailing
her own heart beating

there is no
forgiveness
in never
being loved

being held
at arm’s length
always forced
to see herself
in someone else’s lies

even the snakes are weary of herSunset