A Poem a Day (51): Listen here

Listen here to the sound of nothing

For in my dreams I fade away.

Like the sheerest palest gossamer

Torn on the teeth of the waiting

Life flickers, cheats with its sheen,

Pretending to be more than it is.

Dance this flick in the breeze of hate

Climbing walls of tactless distaste.

I wander in circles, confounding you,

See you drown in the echoes I leave.

Is this sense enough to begin anew?

Relive this pattern with a different face?

I wander places seeking hidden signs

Only to find myself lost, alone again

Among these tidal waves of strangers,

Chattering aimlessly in endless streams.

Whence did they come together?

Where will they roam once parted?

I spy faces staring from broken mirrors,

Smiling jagged grins spun of treacle.

It drips slowly in a snail’s pace

Wriggling like a worm to turn back again

I can see it now from where I stand

Hugging myself in this drizzling rain

How the years passed in a quickening,

Not pausing to see if I had enough time

Hear it now, these distant peels

Crying from the tower looking over me

In this sketch I draw myself a hat of blue,

Dipping it in tune to the music you play.

Give me a song on that trusty violin

Enlivening visions of youth in a sigh

I can dance, spin on my toes, evoke this,

The magic in the gasp of the dying day.

copyright Vickie Johnstone