eaux de parfums…a brief encounter

A tapestry of cobblestone concealed our every step

Drawn to one another as polar opposites

Hastened breath misting in opacity by night’s coolness

As we navigate awareness of our destination

Meandering pathways of Victorian translation

Chamfered elegance, hands groping blindly bidding guidance

Moonlit hollows of darkened doorway cast forbidding shadows

Closer, closer, feeling intensely anxious of juncture

Rounding corners failing to yield to our expectations

Whispered beggings for chance meeting exhaled in wonderment

Wanton thoughts excite with every hurried stride, forsaken

Perspiration’s trickle cools our heated forms, dripping

Traces of fleeting presence, ever closer must we be

Wait…there beneath soft lantern you pause in anticipation

Our eyes impale the other’s in poignant consternation

Paralysis overcomes as our discreet forbidding

Slowly now our tempered cadence, measured interference

We still proceed to closeness in angled accentuation

Our gaze locked in readiness as lions poised defiant

Heartbeats in runaway as each moment wroughts new meaning

Now droplets fall in seductive pleasure, penetrating

An already moistened clothing, chilling to heated skin

Wind’s blanket surrounds our greeting as with eaux de parfums

Your fragrance now unbearable, we twist with elegance

Gazelles in frenzied union bound as lovers now conjoined

A kiss, to linger, bittersweet with each passing moment

Oblivious to else surrounding, bid you fond farewell

Till next we meet on darkened path in shadows our sweet sorrow

copyright 2009 Don MacIver;  All Rights Reserved

Her Name Was Ayana

Although the names in this poem are ficticious with respect to the accompanying photo here they nonetheless once belonged to beautiful young children of Ethiopia. Subject of this piece are the millions of hungered humanity who have perished out of starvation and its endemic disease. Pockets of African regions have been besieged by drought and poverty to the extent that human survival is precarious to fatal. Life hangs in the balance there as hungered mouths and outstretched hands want and beg for morsels of food and droplets of water. Drought, global inflation and armed conflict complicate an already desperate situation. International food aid has brought relief, largely from the US yet hunger remains for many a daily struggle to defeat the ever-present threat of death.

Tears and desperate prayers simply weren’t enough…to save Ayana.

—————————————————

Her eyes deeply set in hungered hollows
Soiled stringy hair strands so long ago bathed
Sad vacant stare weeping waterless tears
A smile forever lost, defeated dreams

Ayana birthed a child, name of Dahnay
Whose papa lays silent of malnutrition
Gripped by the plague, sweetest wanton gaze
Prayers for but few morsels he never consumed

Ayana layed Dahnay to rest this day
Emaciated remains, open grave
Scorching sun glaring unforgivingly
As baby lays silent, his mama sobs

Gripped by a poverty, living in slums
Injera flatbread their only staple
Their shelter a mud hut of single room
Earthen floors a place of broken slumber

On blistered foot walking many hours long
To market they carried sorghum and maize
Over parched grasses dry, infrequent rains
Relief by the droplet long ago seen

Bitterness replacing glimmers of hope
Distended ribs skeletal, starved remains
A toxic cocktail of pain, misery
Life’s eventuality, death’s redress

Look into Ayana’s eyes…if you can
Vacant by their witness, her soul bereft
Her heart once torn to pieces, dignity
Ravaged by failings of humanity

Baby Dahnay’s cries sadly unanswered
He clung to mama’s breast, his dying thirst
Left unsatiated, he’d look away
His lifeline to survival dried up, gone

Close your eyes now baby Dahnay, look away
From a life not of your choosing sadly
May your afterlife be more plentiful
Without hunger, pain, and rampant disease

Mama Ayana will be there for you
Where papa awaits, a family again
In happiness always you will all stay
By your hut where once you gathered in prayer

…may the hunger cease to exist some day

copyright 2009 Don MacIver;  All Rights Reserved

Save Harmless Exculpatory Delusions

Lo fire and brimstone may burn as in Hell

Nay where knaves and thieves in deception fall

Lusting for injurious withholdings

Trickery forged by the magician’s wand

Distortion in all its likeness does bear

Semblance of reasoning abandoned still

Psychoses of disproportionate form

Disengaged realities, thus delusion

Would I intercede your malcontent

Nor exculpate your alleged guilt

Acquit, lest I bear feigned innocence

Your pillage of soul without consequence

By the visage of your damning grace

Do I bow in gentle acquiescence

Doth my soul in plundered poverty speak

Of divine interventions knowingly

Predators loom in the darkness of night

Cloaked in shadow yet valid silhouette

Praying on the meek, complacent of woe

A preponderance, new realities

copyright 2009 Don MacIver;  All Rights Reserved

Hope Is…..Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm—

I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers/

You Gave Me A Lifetime

What I’d give for each moment spent with you
Each second, each hour we’d celebrate
The gentle caress of a nurtured hand
Lips barely touch though the sweetest of kiss
You’d coddle my every waking hour
Your kindness my blessing, together we
Made music enriched by our very souls
It was ours to keep and never let go
An eternity passed unknowingly
Just grant us some time, too soon would it end
Though in anger at times the words we spoke
In our hearts we were just examining
Feelings of turmoil, an inner weakness
The tears that you cried, the sadness you lived
Oft drained you of energies better used
I’ve begged your forgiveness, absolved my wrongs
Let the thorn of a rose never keep us apart
Lo its petals may always conjoin two hearts
Forever is how it truly must be
Together for a lifetime cherishing
All that we’ve had and whatever may be
In this place and hereafter…stay with me

copyright 2009 Don MacIver;  All Rights Reserved

companions, lovers, friends...nothing else matters

Of Chalice & Sword

Resting high above the village Bamburgh

Stands a castle where knights and kings of lore

Raised their chalice high bidding praise and prayer

Victors of Camelot, King Aurthur’s liege

Sirs Lancelot, Bedevere, Galahad

Knights of gallantry in chainmail armor

Swordsmen of bloodied hand, battle weary

Expounding tales of medieval quest

By the power of the sword Excalibur

Its double-edge raised to a blackened sky

Felling all challenge with swift disregard

The kingdom and its governance upheld

On mounted steed through enchanted forest

Legendary quest for the Holy Grail

Weighs heavy upon battle-scarred warriors

Beyond sandy shores of Northumberland

Lo centuries pass upon Chalice Hill

Where a gardens of tranquil and splendor

Encircles a well head of sculpted inlay

Bearing image of Vesica Pisces

On distant acreage stands “Circle of Stones”

The Stonehenge of Wiltshire by Merlin’s hand

Memorial to kings’ men and war lords

Fallen silent in battle by the sword

copyright 2009 Don MacIver, All Rights Reserved

Allow Me This

But few moments span a lifetime

A fissure sinks unmeasured depths

Solar flares rage from distant sun

As tail of the lion, daunting

Chilled air of morn, mellon drop dew

In glistened meander falling

Speckled doe in placid forage

Draws water’s cleanse, a pristine brook

Mine eyes reflect the shimmering

Ears touched by reclusive silence

Allow me this gift of wanton

Extravagance, not forsaken

Eyes closed, feel heartbeat quickening

Mind’s parabolic mandolin

Symphonic cadence, elegance

Allow me this time, this moment

Be this my forever bounty

Upon prayer I cast forth my will

Lay trust and favor at my feet

Allow me few moments to live

copyright 2009 Don MacIver; All Rights Reserved