A Ripple In Tideless Water Poem by Thomas Bates

a reflection:

your eyes
are large and spacious,
exaggerating depth
in their pupils' longing to relax.
(and in them, I seem to see
the hints
of unspoken despair.)

like a foot brought down many times during life
into a pool of stagnant waters,
mistakes made
have been
covered up indiscreetly
by the changing waves of flawless
romances.
like an intoxicated ballerina's
small yet unforgettable dance,
your damp eyes free of tides
remain dark
in their sultry and unreadable gaze.
like soft hair pulled back sharply and tied -
or a veil you wear that shrouds the truths of experience, far
from our sight -
you feign the swoon
of a fashionable innocence,
a façade immersed in
the history of great lies.
you were much like the calculated measure of a clock;
everything seemed to last forever
as seconds ticked by, counting off
the dreams of sweet loss, and then...

...you were gone!

I know you better than the image that remains
with me in photographs;
you'd been pushed to the limits of some edge
when you left
this place of healing too soon for your good.
like Emily (poet of the poems that sowed truth to her misery)
metaphorically, at least,
you dressed in white, always;
an 'eternal virgin' in your own way, 'though by now
everyone's forgotten this.
you just moved on to embrace a bolder lover's heart, while still embracing my hand
in the intimacy
of a much better
understanding.



by Thomasjbates