Rope and Wire (Sestina)

Your shoulders held up with gilded rope.

Delicate, as if gliding on the wind.

My words slip, voice chokes and drowns,

and for an insignificant time, I’m lost

and strung out. The moment came and the moment

passed. But somehow you never left my mind.

 

We were enthralled with each other, and didn’t mind

that our hearts were loosely tied together with rope

and wire. In my chest, I still feel the moment

love escaped our lips. Skin caressed by mellow wind.

Ignorant of everything we could have lost,

keeping each other afloat, so neither of us drowns

 

But love like that never truly drowns

the darkness that clouds a wounded mind.

Nothing I did could bring back your lost

innocence. No amount strength, or length of rope

could keep you from being whisked away by the wind.

Then you were a speck in the sky, lasting only a moment.

 

I never believed for a single moment

that when love sinks, it drowns,

dragged under by violent waters and wind.

Leaving me alone, trapped inside my mind,

with hands burned red from gripping the rope.

Left with the memory of what I have lost.

 

Like a castaway marooned on a raft. Lost

at sea, yearning for the moment

where he could reach out for gnarled rope.

But the roar of doubt and fear drowns

out the last whispers of hope in his mind

and his lungs expel the last bit of wind.

 

Its been a lifetime since I’ve enjoyed the wind

kissing my skin. And I miss the way I’d get lost

in your smile. That perfect picture in my mind

begins to dull, our time together like a fleeting moment.

Ashen clouds, and murky fog rises and drowns

out the sun. And finally, I let go of that length of rope.

 

But I didn’t mind the feeling of rope.

And whatever is lost, who cares how it drowns.

The wind no longer carries the scent of the moment.

This poem is about: 
Me
Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

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