Dark walls of water
and sea-foam lace
reach up for a moon pinned impossibly high,
while the woods settle in
to the bed of the earth
with a shrug and a yawn and a sigh.
Then you lean into me
as I reach out for you
and we bid all the specters good bye,
at the edge of a world
where the nightmares are curled
and the stars fall away from the sky.
Originally written for the Imaginary Garden.
Somewhere out in Nowhere Land a songbird waits for me,
and sings of things that never were, and that will never be.
I’m smitten with the music that he warbles sweet and clear.
He’s in the treetops high above, and yet he sounds so near;
and if I close my eyes and rest
I feel wings flutter in my chest
and magic places far away in space and time seem near,
like they’re more real than my home, and what’s around me here.
Princes bright and dragons bold fight battles round my bed,
and giant ogres want to grind my bones to make their bread.
Witches cackle, donkeys bray and cats wear leather boots,
Children run through forests, and play tunes on magic flutes.
Then knights and trolls and goats come out to skip across the floor,
and Irish women selling clams clap hands and call for more.
So bears and pigs and wolves join paws and dance ‘round in a ring,
and mermaids swim up to the shore to hear the sirens sing.
Old men grow young, and strong and straight,
whilst black birds argue and debate.
And it does not seem strange to me; I do not feel perplexed.
I shake my head and laugh and wait, to see what happens next.
Then the moon smiles down at me and asks me to come swim.
The stars agree. ”The air is fine,” they say, “so come on in.”
I dip my toe into the sky, and it does feel just right
and so I close my eyes and dive head-long in to the night.
This originally appeared Writing in the Bachs.
You
and I
we build
a scaffolding
of
sighs
reaching to
the closer
clouds
our fears
are not
of flying
but of
falling
back
to earth
with those
who go about
their lives
as if
the sky
was only
empty
as if
it did
not contain
wonders
as if
it was not
the threshold to
heaven
By Mary Bach, previously published at http://writinginthebachs.blogspot.com/2014/11/sky-light.html
In Other Words 