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Open Poetry #47
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icebox
Member Elite
since 2003-05-03
Posts 4383
in the shadows

0 posted 2011-10-16 06:04 AM




When I was young,
leather wrapped to play in town,
my thoughts had blood and heart to move it;
now I am old,
iron bound,
full of crystalline power
woven at extremities with lines that bind the universe,
bent beneath understandings beyond my ability to share,
good that I feel less a need to share.

Fire in my belly
more often now is what remains of dinner
than some idealistic zeal of belief or patriotism
or political charade
or flaring tinder
sparked by striking brittle promises
against delusional offerings of love;
Sirens calling me no longer offer up unbridled lust
instead seducing me
with glimpses of returning to eternity.

My god,
I did love in life though,
from near and from afar!
In my life
I've held ankles
bound wrists
kissed inner folds
and freed frightened souls
from girlish fears
of so many women
of whom I never should have had a right to be near;
some few I wanted actively,
most others seemed just to appear.

Oh I know what you'll say,
"The old toad's just bragging,"
but it isn't that way,
I swear,
maybe you just had to be there,
so much of my life simply was blest in so very many ways.

Now these words,
your words,
coquette words,
charming words of love and faith and trust,
fall on my soul
like acid rain,
liquid fire splashed in my eyes,
even now
hours later
with echoes of pain still cascading through empty corridors in my soul,
I can not focus on reality
through burning sting of awareness
that etches memory
and works to keep me blind;
words like forever
when you haven't dug graves of yesterday,
when you can't grasp simple birth pains of tomorrow,
ideas of fidelity
when you've never had to choose who lives
who dies,
never had to look into pleading eyes of survivors begging why
and had to swallow truth.

I know,
it's said already,
I am old,
and clearly melodramatic,
so much older than you
I really do wear boots
made before you were born;
sordid corridors of my soul
are covered in graffiti,
littered with broken mirrors,
memories of dusty names
shadows of distorted faces
buried long ago for heroism
or perhaps for some long forgotten crimes
played out in places where even though the world
may have then turned adroitly on a dime
they are but footnotes in your labored readings,
like fifteen minute news
ancient by tomorrow
easily overlooked,
like me,
yet for me
they are living memories,
names that call to me in sleep,
silhouettes crisply clear
flashing at random through my dreams...

Where would your promises of passion be
when I awoke beside you
with a soul full of faces
and a throat full of screams?

...and though I know
meanings vary
some lost,
some reviled,
some revered
taught to a child as stars by which to steer,
I know too
karma will wait patiently
for decades,
for lifetimes when needed,
for you to find meaning
in differences between us;
I don't have time left in this life to wait,
though I see lightning in your eyes
and taste arousal in the air around you
when you look from under heavy lidded eyes
and smile,
while you turn your chest
tightening your blouse
to guarantee I see points of interest hardened
in the proper light,
and I don't even have to pause to wonder
if that same practiced gesture
brings boys around you under
any spell you decide to weave;
long before you
it will be my time to leave
to carry on the burden of our most basic task
weighing life's reflections
to etch new understandings
on hard polished surfaces,
the harsh reality of being separately ensouled.

As forces of Nature
we are as irreconcilable as the pure childlike ideals of justice
with the realities of conflicts I once settled
with the bullet and the blade.

©2006, 2011 by icebox



  


[This message has been edited by icebox (10-17-2011 07:02 AM).]

© Copyright 2011 icebox - All Rights Reserved
Lori Grosser Rhoden
Member Patricius
since 2009-10-10
Posts 10202
Fair to middlin' of nowhere
1 posted 2011-10-16 07:04 AM


Powerful... This speaks volumes as to the kind of man you are today. It is clear as you describe yourself why she would be so drawn to you. You are a wise man. Some women just have a weak spot for wise guys


Lori

serenity blaze
Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

2 posted 2011-10-16 07:39 AM


"Where would your promises of passion be
when I awoke beside you
with a soul full of faces
and a throat full of screams?"

I really hate when that happens--they never leave a note, but once there was...money.

That shouldn't happen to anybody.

I miss you, Mr. C.

I'd tell you that I feel like something horrible is going to happen, but something horrible always does, so that's hardly an impressive prediction.

Where is the melting smilie?





JerryPat2
Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975
South Louisiana
3 posted 2011-10-16 09:40 AM


Naw, you weren't bragging, Ice. You penned a powerful poem, reux or not. You have lived  life how you lived life. You have come away from that life with understanding you never thought you would have, and at one point in that other life you cared not a whit for that understanding. I know. I understand.

~* The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.--William Blake ~*~

Martie
Moderator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049
California
4 posted 2011-10-16 03:03 PM


It is good to read you, Charly.  Makes me feel old though, and full.  " separately ensouled."  Yes.  Hugs you!
Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354
Listening to every heart
5 posted 2011-10-16 03:08 PM


Only you can redux what you do do,
so well.




ice
Member Elite
since 2003-05-17
Posts 3404
Pennsylvania
6 posted 2011-10-16 03:10 PM


World class poetry!

It took a huge amount of energy to write this.

I stand, and applaud your ability to do so..

Poet sir..I am very moved.

JL
Member Ascendant
since 2004-04-01
Posts 6128
Texas, USA
7 posted 2011-10-16 08:54 PM


"Oh I know what you'll say,
"The old toad's just bragging,"
but it isn't that way,
I swear,
maybe you just had to be there,
so much of my life simply was blest in so very many ways."

Your entire write is an excellent awareness of your life in review, but this verse adds clarity and significance because it says, in a way, that we all have things we did somewhere in our past which would be unbelievable to others, or even surprise their senses.

Excellent write!

JL



Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Maranatha!

Nocturnal Pulse
Member
since 2010-08-12
Posts 84
Australia
8 posted 2011-10-16 09:08 PM


You come across poems every rare occasion, ones that are more felt than read.

This is one of those poems, its brilliant, its sincere and I hope you live long to write more.

Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California
9 posted 2011-10-17 04:12 AM


Fascinating as always, Charlie.
                        Ida

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