Landscape with Ruins and Fire

 Landscape With Ruins And Fire

When you are very old

and things are so very gone,

will you wish you had

held my hand,

will you remember

you never said my name

without lying

or looked in my eyes

while not speaking it?

When you're very old

wrapping yourself in the ruins

near the next Ice Age

with no one to draw magic

on cave walls  to call up your meals,

as you eat the dry harvests of ghosts

will you make yourself  an

ash shadow campfire

from our flame-scatter life,

or will you simply

find another

home to burn down

well to fill in

forest to level

for a flat plane

on which you may have

the exquisite comfort of

that last walk
alone.

~June 2013

posted for     real toads

Fireblossom Friday: Challenge: Loss

The incomparable Fireblossom, of Shay's Word Garden, asks us to write about "...the kind of loss that breaks your heart..."

Process Notes: The 'I' and 'You' in this poem are rhetorical devices and composites, and do not refer to any one specific person. Also, on a personal note, I'm having some problems adjusting to new medication, so please bear with me if I am slow in getting around to return visits. Should be temporary and should be back in shape very soon.

Header image: Landscape of Ruins and Fire, by Felix Valloton, 1914

Footer image: The Campfire, by Ambrose Bierstadt, circa 1860

Public Domain

Rules

Rules 

I.

"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."
~G. K. Chesterton

You always break the rules 

you think

they're for someone else.

You said.

You're allowed to break the rules

I said,

when you know

you're going to die.

II.

"There are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something."

~Thomas A. Edison

You can't waltz with me

in the ballroom, under the prism ice diamonds

if you don’t keep the step, and you won’t wear the gown.

Those are the rules.

You said

The rules aren’t the dance

I said.

You tiled the ballroom

with razors;

the gown comes with a straitjacket.

III.

"Love begets love, love knows no rules, this is the same for all."

~Virgil

You'll never get there

if you don’t follow the road signs

if you don't go where I tell you.

I make the rules here.

You said.

So I've gone walking where

the rules are leaf-written,

where the road's a feathered serpent

flying over a waterfall 

on  the bright

silver map of chaos.

" I am free, no matter what rules surround me…."

~Robert A. Heinlein

~June 2013

posted for     real toads

Challenge: Life, Love and the Pursuit of a Really Profound Thought

Herotomost, Corey Rowley to everyone else, challenges us to "..write a bit of personal philosophy that you would like to impart to your friends.  Something you have been thinking about and strikes a chord with you and may resonate with others as well." I've been thinking a lot about rules lately, and how they --or rebellion against them--once used to dominate my life and shape everything I did--don't know if this will resonate or not. (I've tried to use some quotes to mimic the 'Chris in the Morning' aspect.)

 

Image: La Carte Blanche, Rene Magritte, 1965

All copyright belongs to the copyright holders.

Dreamflower

Dreamflower

I dream

of a flower.

You dream

of a machine

with housing so elegant, so complete,

no grit can ever get in.

I dream of days I

husked like cornsilk.

You dream

of going fast, of red,

and the roar as your fist

pounds away your father.

I dream of spotted fawns

and  brown eyes.

~May 2013

55 disappearing  petals for     the g-man

Top Image: © joyannjones

Footer Image: Fawn near Office, by mock turtle on flick'r

Fantasia of the Flutterwings

Circle Limit IV, M.C. Escher

Fantasia of the Flutterwings

In the fiesta 

of the Dead's day

where the flutterwings live

where the spidersnakes slide,

the sun 

only comes after

the orgasm of rain, his

grunts quickly stifled, his teeth polite;

but the capes of the shadowtrees

mate simultaneous,

 reticulated, wet,

their love dries slowly

as the dayflower opens

the caramel sky.

Blushed with cerise

the other cheek turns,

the flutterwings burn 

till the last of the night,

the lust of the rain

brings their time.

~June 2013

Flying Fox, Vincent Van Gogh, 1886

Image by M.C. Escher may be protected by copyright. All copyright belongs to the copyright holders.

Image by Vincent Van Gogh, public domain via wikipaintings.org