lady writer

I don't suppose it's proper or
Permissible and I'm not sure
You would not hold it against me
Flippant, truant, and so sorry

But the truth of the matter here
We've seen three seasons of the year
Though time flies and memories fade
Lady writer, I wish I'd stayed.

Perhaps it's sad, this heart set taut
I tied my sails in sailors' knots
( You taught me to tie sailors' knots
But not to turn about the spot )

This picture just won't fade: the way
The hair fell down around your face

One last time.

As evening drained away we laughed

Left our impressions in the grass

All nervous craft the shadows close

About our hands between our clothes


And Adrienne's consumed by this


I know


She takes me in she takes my hand

And whispers soft I understand
That if this ever comes again
It won't be for a while

Then


Make me what you will and take
Only what you need and leave
Something left of me I'll need


To carry on with this when you

    Have gone

Where she held fast to my hand.

I overheard softly from outside
Half the heart you had ever allowed
The love affair lost in the spotlight
And the dream I remembered out loud

I saw you there heart strung and singing
Wearing faces that remembered mine
The notes you had wrote for me fading
And the memories washed out in rhyme

I've long since forgiven our ending
But I couldn't have been less prepared
The half of my heart you left ringing
And the wonder of seeing you there

Toward absent lovers always

At seaside white caps waiting
All my footsteps to unveil
The heart-shaped places water
Might then settle for a spell

I watched the wash erode them
And the water back to waves
As long as I keep walking
I'll leave more along the way

Toward absent lovers always
Love's tide ever stronger flows
Water, love, and gravity
We can't forever hold

Some times for ever

Of all I've left unsettled in an anthem of goodbyes
    I think of your dismay
    and what's become of me
        a peal of thunder far away
    and slips from memory

Of all the panoplies I've seen of fading days and skies
    adrift in summer heat
    and stuff of younger years
        between those things that make life sweet
    and softly disappear

Of all the moments left behind let this be kept alive
    a day in your home town
    and night beneath the world
        an unpaved road; the window down
    and autumn hair unfurled.

Draft Aut 2014.