Image Source: Charito

Source: Davetname

Drowning

Do not mind the tide pushing in and pulling out

Or the waves falling and rising

In perfect scales

In lovely cadence

One and two One and two and three One and two

Hold your breath And play This music

Until the sea In its admiration Smothers your Last

Note.

-Skye

Source: visualstatic101

Tides

Mooring lost Battered upon the sharp reef I could only be counted as flotsam A bottle with no message Driven out into a howling sea Without a cry

Stranded in this bottle I lost the sea Peering out through the wavy glass I saw nothing I felt nothing So fearful was the loss

The bottle has long broken There are bits of sea glass That can’t cut anyone Even me Scattered now Among my bones

You ask me to examine them now These old hurts and betrayals I see only soft light The kind you find both at dawn and sunset

We are all subject to the tide I suppose, It steals our voice and brings it back again.

-Skye

Saturday Afternoon

I would peel you apples just to see fall’s crisp juice color your lips.

You are so far from me

though

that I wield the knife mutilating the fruit

and bury Eve’s sin deep beneath pastry.

Perhaps the smell of it cooling on the window sill will bring you here

and I will yet taste your mouth

and know everything.                  -Skye

The girl cutting apple, 1938, Andre Derain

Image: Fish inside a jellyfish Source: Sixpenceee

HAIKU- Ocean Predicament

A fish’s worst dream To be dissolving away In a jellyfish.

-Skye

The Wraith’s Requiem

Thin strips of flayed flesh String the bow.

Time is always conducting us in and out of measure.

The ghost of my own making holds fast to darkness

Though, I let go so long ago

Learning to play for no one with fingers once broken

Beautiful terrible music unleashed into the world for me for me

for you.

-Skye

Requiem by Burak Ulker

Artist: Laura Berger Source: Virtual Art Curator

Stout Women

Hold each other up A collective of acrobats

Balancing upon each other So, no one will

Fall.

-Skye

Brassaï • Notre Dame Gargoyle-Paris, 1932

Source: afrouif

Brassai and His Conversation with a Gargoyle, 1932

Tucked into Paris between the two world wars

You came to me with the bright lights twinkling on softly rising city noises

And caught me in my common pose rain worn contemplative knowing nothing and everything

Yes, the photographer cried-

I saw this immediately the flash illuminated everything and nothing of you

How can that be old roof top friend that I only think of you in the rain

When in my grainy photo you are always here

-Skye

Photograph Title: “Angel of Death” Sculpture of a Funeral Gondola, Venice 1951 Photographer: Paolo Monti

Gondola

May the angel go before you and clear the way

I will ride with you but only to San Michele

Gliding by Our favorite haunts The rainy doorway where we met Our favorite espresso The hat shop where you bought me that Fantastical hat

My memories, My loud weeping My love so still in your box

During our last gondola ride.

-Skye

Image:The New Bedford Orpheum Theater, Massachusetts Photographer:Frank Grace Source:Ruinationstation

Elegy for the New Bedford Orpheum Theater

The Titanic sank The day you opened

Your gilt was fresh and tableaus bright

It was April 15, 1912 World war had not come Flu had not come World war had not come again

Merry patrons settled into indigo velvet

900 miles east northeast The cold water swallowed thousands While a different band played

Your opulence faded fast Dust caked, peeling, Stripped mostly Bare

You were sold and sold again

The rain came in leaving Plaster puckers, mildew stains, Mushy boards

For-sale sign clouded by rust You are eternally empty

Swallowed whole I tread gently on your aching abandoned bones Lighting candles And singing For the dead.

Image Source: Mykukla

Defining Cleopatra

Glory of her father Princess Goddess who loves her father Pharaoh Mistress of Caesar Whore Eternal love of Marc Antony Beloved Enemy of Octavian Foe

Framed by the men in your life You are seen most clearly in the Cobra you pressed to Your breast To escape them.

-Skye