Saturday 28 July 2012

Hearts Ease in Winter


Late in the winter night,
all of my
neighbours quiet,
I hear underneath our homes
the hum of a great,
suburban engine
warming the street lights’
yellow sodium.

Did some get in my eyes?
My eyes are burning.  I’d choose
two drops of Oberon’s
purple flower, known
to some as Heartsease,
by an arrow-head
newly riven, fresh

pinched-in-to, veined petals
squeezed between thumb and metal:
a drop on each lid could,
in a robin’s flight,
with glycerol wet,
restore my view
of Love’s forgotten quarrel.

Although the days are cold,
begun in long-drawn hours
of yellowed windows,
two drops of Heartsease
on my scalded eyes
would awaken me
to a sky near Athens.


Hearts Ease was published in the January 2013 issue of The Dawntreader. I suppose it's a bit trite to say I'm glad to see it in print, but written a couple of years ago it marks a definite step forward in my poetry chase.  I wrote it out quite quickly and then battled with it for weeks.  You know how it is with a word out of place...