At the Side of the Years

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At the Side of the Years Page 2

by Daniel Hargrove


  that her love will not fade as quickly

  as it began...

  I love her.

  I cannot say how

  this is so.

  Already, and truly, and always.

  Perhaps she feels the same...

  would that I could believe it were so.

  If she could know my soul throughout

  would she call for me in the night?

  I am a feather who drifts on the breezes...

  I am a moonstruck teenage girl...

  I am a bitter ale, and black licorice...

  I am a forest fire, and a walking cane...

  Falling Page

  Chase a pillow 'round the sleepy children

  or wonder at the missing coriander

  Wrestle with the shadow of a mirror

  Glimmer like the endless starry heavens

  Trickle like the glaciers falling water

  Bended like the willow in the wind

  Cracking like the fire's sparky shining

  Open like the bible's yellow pages

  Doubting that the wisdom came from sages

  Holding closely all that really matters

  Barter with the monkeys for bananas

  Meddle with the safely guarded secrets

  Changing is the function of the seasons

  Aging is the passing of the patter

  Dying is the wordless scent of treason

  Darkness is the moon's impressive thunder

  If all you were was a drop or two of water

  And the world were just expanse of endless ocean

  Being lost would forever seem familiar

  And your only rest would be the freezing winter

  The Passage

  Snow faerie lie with me

  on a carpet of green moss;

  sample the spring

  though the jays protest

  I will wish you a bright orchid

  for a meandering moment

  crawling like a bright blue beetle

  up your high willow;

  tangled like a greensnake

  in your branches

  Share this bread and honey

  and my flask of sweet burgundy,

  then nested under branches

  we'll delve the fond reach

  of new growth

  Leave your white dress on the limb

  and escape like a trickle of snow water

  into the season of robins

  Let's walk very slowly

  to that far off onyx game...

  hares scamper at our approach

  The melody of sunlight through the leaves

  whispers of your bold arrival

  Spill and rush around stones...

  fill my thirsty cup...

  find my deepest roots

  or fall in drops from the sky

  A Tough Nut to Crack

  Incomplete jigsaw

  Missing key to lock

  Windows nailed shut

  Broken spring in clock

  No door in doghouse

  No holes in fence

  Unrestrained aggression

  Feebleminded sense

  Reflection in a shadow

  Missing teeth on saw

  Tempo of confusion

  Incomprehensible law

  Like promises on bibles

  Water on the fires

  Truth is truth to wise men

  Truth is lies to liars

  Forgetting the eternal

  Foolish to the wise

  How is it we fail to see

  The blindness in our eyes

  In Shine and Shadow

  Winding path that leads through the woody grasses to the cliff's edge, beaten by deer...

  Beating heart of a newborn baby...

  Arrow's flight quick and whispering to the eye...

  Fallen tree trunk that waits for travelers, there...

  Passionate kisses of the mythic lovers, embracing...

  Moon rising in a sky so starry and deep...

  Forgiving rainbow enfolded in clouds and cerulean...

  Death of a rabbit, fallen to the hunter's aim...

  Eyes caught by tears of a paper promise...

  Rain falling for days and days...

  Rose's dilemma, cut and watered in a vase...

  Swearing of hearts, chosen in a dove's hour...

  Prayer of a child, that goes on and on for hours...

  Tree struck by lightning, once a treehouse's home...

  Sad explanation of the death of a mother so loved...

  Whispered secret, face flush with embarrassed giggle...

  Fear bourne out, letter with ink running...

  Step after step, into another long morning...

  Kite flying high in the hand of a lonely child...

  Skinny lost puppy, wandering streets, never home...

  No.

  Just, no.

  Especially if it has to do with money.

  And don't ask again.

  'Cause I'll give you the same answer.

  No.

  By the way,

  I'm open to compromise.

  You give a little,

  I'll give a little.

  But the answer is still no.

  N-O, no.

  I might say yes.

  But that would require

  Some doing on your part.

  Give me three good reasons

  Why I should say yes.

  No?

  No.

  Okay, alright.

  You do have a point,

  I'll admit.

  It is a little unfair,

  I'll admit.

  Do you have anymore questions?

  'Cause I've got one for you.

  No.

  Never

  If you tried a little harder

  and saw the seeds you've sown

  then you would have eternal...

  but your time is not your own

  If you thought for many hours

  and found a way to words

  them maybe they would listen...

  but your voice cannot be heard

  If your face turned red with anger

  and you shouted at the sky

  then the angels would be fearful...

  but your fists, they just won't fly

  If you showed unending patience,

  never cold and never mean

  you would find a love worth having...

  but your kindness won't be seen

  If you broke out all the bottles

  and okayed it with your dad

  then the dancing could begin...

  but your party won't be had

  If you saw what I am seeing

  and didn't stoop too low

  then maybe you would realize...

  but your mind will never know

  People

  Stuffed red parrots, dusty with age

  fill Pedro's closet

  His wife Angelica

  prides herself on her roses

  Pierre is a bachelor

  He spies frilly skirts

  from his balcony

  Pierre keeps honeybees

  Pete is a clumsy janitor

  Bright blue overalls

  Just a minute, Pete!

  You got an extra cigarette?

  Don't loan anything to Paulette

  She won't give it back

  She stole my favorite bra

  We were 'sposed to be friends

  Phyllis knows her arithmetic

  One plus one equals two

  Subtract one and you get one

  She knows it by heart

  Dirt's Genie

  In a flash, he appears out of smoke...

  risen from the dirt, nothing more.

  He has wishes to fulfill, and a smile shines out,

  and the blossom of youth is on his turban.

  Is he just a mighty mouse,

  or is there something he can offer,

  more than squeaks a
nd thievery?

  Can he live in the daytime of sun and moon?

  A certain strength is required

  to be a genie, after awhile...

  a tough and tangled, wry strength.

  Once acquired, it never leaves.

  Yes, there's a story behind this...

  an old, and philosophical one.

  A story with an end, but the story goes on

  'till the death of the philosopher, himself.

  A philosopher's stories are mostly in their heads...

  with levels and levels built upon

  the story of man and woman and child

  in shelter, in tangles, in nature.

  Nobody, You Know

  Nobody you would want to know...

  nobody you would want to touch...

  nobody you would want to understand...

  nobody you could love...

  nobody at all...

  nobody to give to...

  nobody to promise my heart...

  nobody who can see within me

  that which makes me who I am.

  Nobody to touch me in that place

  where I have never been touched...

  nobody to keep her promises...

  nobody somewhere I don't know...

  nobody knows me...

  nobody wonders for very long...

  nobody wishes away the hours...

  nobody wants to really understand...

  nobody to whose heart I have the key...

  she is gone somewhere, I can't find her...

  don't lie to me, she is not there...

  Jan. 8th, 2002

  Outing

  As the traces of that hard man

  caused you to fence with that scarecrow

  as the moon had smiled carefully down

  you had left the warm light of the campfire

  Can you see it shine now

  through the dense undertangle of brush

  throwing sparks into the space between the stars?

  Will you return to its warm immeasure?

  As you make your way between the jigsaw of branches

  it does not fit into the flashlight in your hand

  Its warm respite is lost in black lattices

  such that you only know it's working

  We wait for what you have cut from fallen canopies

  or perhaps you will never return

  to feed the flame's untying light

  and untied from the woods around it

  You have pulled an icicle from a branch

  and shine the flashlight through it

  Meanwhile some branches over the campfire

  have alit; the light grows as the woods catch fire

  As you skinny and scratch your way through the dark maze

  the orange light dances through the dry branches

  and the light strikes your eye in a myriad ways

  You turn off your flashlight and stare into the dark

  Pride

  Time is just an unforgettable lie

  Time as it is known to us

  with warm creatures scaling the side of night

  upturned like the sand inside an hourglass

  roast beef many hundreds of years old

  and many an old, old prisoner

  shut in for his words with the king

  I guess I should have known it would happen like this

  Bray now, you priest of slow jeers

  Blink silently at the passing of the aces

  rare insects found at the golden doorway

  and shy as the sweetest and kindest boy

  Your flight is the singing of an arrow

  and your hand didn't slow with the weight of the tomb

  Rode on a long and sandy gallop

  you were words that had fallen from their letters

  Shower

  I had cautioned that zebra

  against using its stripes

  as an umbrella

  When the rains came

  to the dry savanna

  she heeded my advice

  Wandering in the rain

  the small hooting of mammals

  in the pale and misty noon

  A momentary suspension of time

  sparkled the web of life

  happy trotting of distant thunder

  My and my rust-red boots

  slowly stepped backwards

  for a better shot

  Now striped by the rain

  and salting the ground

  I widened the aperture

  Lapsing brief as a candle

  a sudden gust of wind

  freshened straw colors

  The Offer

  Love is a miscreant

  married to Pandora

  exacting a chimera

  from Romeo's proposal

  Love is a night-watchman

  from dusk to dawn

  asking of faith

  only for vigilance

  Love is a trapper

  skinning the minks

  for her soft furs

  roaming the woods

  Love is a handshake

  firm and easy

  A warm grip

  A kind smile

  Love is a lizard

  basking in the sun

  lying on a rock

  green for the moment

  To Joshua

  I had wondered about the man

  opinions and feathers, I asked

  and probably more to the former

  Listening to his words of protest

  murmured shyly by the breezes

  I offered by defense to the moon

  As no on had asked

  and those bad actors

  I saw his fate whispered to the wind

  Well now the willow has been broken

  but as I have fallen in a well

  my only hope is from the thirsty

  Maybe you are a lot like me...

  swearing by the hard as stone

  and silver as her thimble

  When and if, those hinges all rusty

  freeze and will not open

  the locksmith will only scratch his head

  All willing and twists of fate

  where love spun like cotton candy

  is pink to your hungry stares

  Neither did I know

  that my paper cup words

  would be crumpled up and tossed on the ground

  Let me tell you about that mountain

  now turned to sand...

  time, all too often, is like rain

  The sweet sadness of regret

  will never an apology make

  and it is already tomorrow across the Atlantic

  Sep. 17th, '99

  Parcel

  No one ever came to claim it

  wrapped in brown paper

  with twine tied around it

  and it sat in a back room

  at the post office

  for what seemed like years

  gathering dust

  and completely forgotten

  What was in the parcel

  no one knew

  no one asked

  The address on the package

  was non-existent

  and the return address

  was smudged so badly

  that no one could guess

  to whom the parcel

  belonged

  If you know

  to whom this package belongs

  please notify me

  and I will see to it

  that the package is returned

  to the rightful owner

  If I do not receive

  notification in writing

  by the date specified

  the dispensation of the package

  will be decided

  by the proper authorities

  (untitled)

  Love, exactly as it seems

  is sweet and deep and high and rare,

  the stuff of warm and happy dreams...


  if you find it meet me there.

  No doubts, no questions, no regret...

  I'll never hurt that gentle heart,

  nor she hurt me, or chance it, yet;

  there'll never be a need to part.

  If love should take you by surprise

  don't take it lightly, just a few

  will find it in another's eyes,

  a love so perfect, strong and true.

  Remember this, the truly wise

  show love in everything they do.

  I hope you enjoyed this, my fifth book of poems. If you would care to offer any feedback, or simply say hello, please drop me an email at [email protected]

 


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