More Poetry

FOUR REASONS WHY I WANT TO GO WITH YOU

In the eons of your eyes
cities rise and fall like stars

Your patched sleeve trails
broken meteors

Beyond the sun
your black rook ship
rocks in a dream of
galactic November

Your name means
"from a town long buried
on the other sideof time"

When the Earth grew old
I wove my dress of cinder and ice
then, dancing below no gods
I wished only for you

(previously published in Dreams and Nightmares)

***

MOVING TOO FAST

When did I turn back
to get a better glimpse ofcharming princes
When did I notice the little
winged girls in the trees

When did I suddenly see
how fast I'd been moving
year to year
on a planet full of mysteries
I'd missed?

***

untitled

There is only one autumn
It is the wind
now
and forever
ruffling the stars

(also published in Dreams and Nightmares)

***

untitled

Autumn is a town
on its own star
fallen from
the coldest
constellation

***

HOW I SURVIVE EACH DAY

The white lands have faded
I have dreamed the dream
of disappearing

Someone's pounding at the door
to myself
a stranger crying "Let me in"
while I hide in that numinous fortress
of stars and leaves I have created
all my life

My house glows
A madwoman sleeps here
No one knows what day of the year
it is
where the wind blows hot and cold
to my command
and the windows fog in confusion

Someone's coming to take me away
Someone's listening for my heartbeat
so they can find me
clustered in Scorpio
or the Little Bear
folded in gold dust
and end-of-summer reeds

Some minor god is breaking me
down
telling me I cannot inhabit
my own world
never leaving me
alone

Wendy Rathbone