1988

The afternoon's quiet
Sustained my latest thought
That I had reached some dream state
Where things were clear and bright.

It was all vain I knew,
Cloaked by walls
Calmed by smells,
This idea of you.

"How easily," said a creeping voice.
"Things would break outside this house."

"I would not cave in," I replied.
"Where once I went with my happy, noble, starry-eyed stride."

But these again but vain conflicts
To stir a too-still river,
And once more I would find my mind
Back on my make-believe lover.

"She is the air and I am the sea
And when she is charged she controls me.
I crash and I cry in her mischievous face
And when she is running my waves give chase.
She levels my foul mood with a gentle breeze,
Calming all my seven seas,
And I at times can soak throughout her
Crying and raining my boundless water."

"Well done," hissed my tormentor.
"You dream finely yet are chilled to the bone."

"I'm tired of the passion of all the songs,
The intense soldiers and the haughty wrongs.
I see only one who will be mine
As sure as I'll lie in a box of pine.
Whose heart is kind and most beautiful,
Whose manner is fiery, yet to me affable.
Whose eyes have cut through my mask
And who may possibly understand my task."

Saying this in my bluey dream state,
Perhaps it's all nonsense,
I leave the room and descend the stairs
Misconstruing an acquaintance.

© Brian Ahern 1988