One Way Ships
Flings and wings and rings rejected
Cupid's arrows fly deflected
'It clearly is too late' she signed, 'to love, adore or pay me mind'
Penciled lines drew cruel conclusions
mocking mirror's cracked illusions
Sometimes, in time, I hang awhile, reflected in her parting smile
Drifting wan, below unheeding
worried, wounded suns a' bleeding
Struck dumb by night, no way to say 'Let's sound the stars another way'
Shaking sands frame distant smokestacks
shanty towns, forsaken oak shacks
Pursuing dusk, collapsed and dyed, the docile dolphin deftly stride
beyond behind the ebbing tide, towards One-Way Ships of sunken pride
Gypsy dreamer in denial
Sleep and slumber standing trial
I never really ever slept inside the cryptic walls she kept
Martian moons provoke the ocean
Strange enchantments stir the potion
The mutant molten purple skies ignite subconscious fireflies
Voiceless echoes feigning laughter
Crushing quiet screaming after
Vague vagaries pretend to sleep, my conscience crumbles in a heap
Startled stars at dawn are slacking
Still her tempest sail is tacking
In fractured dreams sere silhouettes blow foghorns, trumpets, clarinets
Discarded glowing cigarettes tinge One-Way Ships with pale regrets
Cold cathedral clocks upended
Frozen second hands suspended
Beneath the gauze of time I try to while away somewhere nearby
Ticking, tocking time's a' tolling
Cruel eternity's cajoling
The future, tattered, calls bereft, with nothing but her shadows left
Brigantines skim gated grottos
Chasing clowns and desperados
While jugglers juggle circus bricks, I'm trapped by time's uncanny tricks
Candied candles flicker faintly
Braided tresses quiver quaintly
[...] Read more
poem by Terry O'Leary
Added by Poetry Lover
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