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.