No Pablo Neruda
Essays on life, work and literatureArchive for November, 2009
Over Dinner
We sat down to dinner
And we spoke our desires
The candle flame leapt
In the breath we expired
We tended a garden
Of caution and youth
Of lust and abandon
And physical truths.
We made the halls echo
With our shoes on the floor
We sat down to wine
Which I held and you poured
And the night, our companion
Displayed a broad moon
That was silver as lightning
In the dark of the room.
You told me you loved me
I had to confess
That love was a thing
I couldn’t profess
But when you took off my clothing
And we bent to the floor
My body responded
With a warmth you adored.
Balmoral Beach
All the fathers and their daughters
were burning in the water
while the patterned towel surrounds
were slowly turning brown
and the incandescent sun
shone its light on everyone
making muscled flesh alight
virgins blushing at the sight
and in their midst a lonely warrior
who was too hot to be bothered
thinking wine was such a waste
when it was only drunk in haste
and the wives they must be thinking
of the glasses they’d been drinking
or perhaps they are like me
minds in gutters,
hearts on sleeves.
The parade of men in boardshorts
to the tune of licorice allsorts
that they fed from greasy bags
to mollify their kids
and the listless gaze was wandering
on all the flesh the sun was undoing
thinking what I wouldn’t do
to have a piece of me on you.
But the fathers and their daughters
dove in flat waves
and were called up,
to the speckled shore of marriage
and their air conditioned cars.
The sentiment was fleeting
that if there chanced a greeting
sadness would be profound
and no one’s heart would make a sound
all would pound and then be bounded
like the waves as they are grounded
and the tethers tied to fingers
would cede before they lingered.
Weeks
In another life
the music stopped
when our bodies wended
and the parting of
the tides of crowds
showed us both
the night had ended.
We traded streets
for closed front doors
and lights were switched on dimly
you hummed against
my naked nape
and the sound
to me, was hymnal.
Damage Done
I’m having trouble now
With simple recollection
I can barely even realise
The face in my reflection
And I think I’ll blame
The drink I had
With a lost connection
It peeled away my soft insides
And left me nursing an infection.
*
I can’t share my misery
It was my own decision
To drink the wine he handed me
In a near slumberous vision
And now I can’t put two and two
In one, or one on top the other
I drank away my subtle blues
And introduced some others.
Awkward Moment
My awkward hand rises up
Then drops down again
You give me a look
Like I am mad,
and I turn away
Like stranded,
Not knowing what I’ve done
Except I’ve confused someone.
*
Oh dear.
*
When you see me again
The silence is tight
I shift in my shoes
And your gaze shifts from my sight
We say short hellos
And we talk about the weather
But I don’t know whether
You remember the moment
My gesture elicited no comment.
*
The ridiculous curtseys
Carry out of control
I am bowing to your thoughts
You attempt to console
We make coffees in purview
Of people we know
But each of us both
Pretend we’re on show.
*
Dropped forks clatter loudly
Lost words in a room
I’m holding the door
The lift closes too soon
The scent of your toast
The wash of my bowl
The quant and absurd
Mores of society howls.
