Muted Messages Poem by Diana van den Berg

These cloud-words
of finely painted shapes and emotions
of different lengths and meanings
of texture-whispers
passing across my sky
of embracing blue,
echoing the protect-soft words
of your treasured
but now only once-a-day emails
so full of your feather-soft heart and fireside-soul
that you have sent me back
though different now
and subdued...

these cloud-words
tell magic tales of a long journey south
and speak to me of ocean’s roar
and sing to me of migrant birds
and flow into my fragile heart and trembling soul
that you picked back up out of the trash
and washed with gentle hands in sweet-smelling soap suds
and slow-dried in your glorious autumn sunshine
and returned to me
wrapped in a big red bow
and your to-die-for smile...

these cloud words
dance for me in gentle sorrow
while birdsong lifts my spirits a little higher
while a wasp and some butterflies
dart and dive and flit and flutter
all glistening in sun-splendour
while with my love
and gratitude
and companionship
and passing on of tools,
you paint
and fix
my house
from nine thousand miles away.

(25 September 2013)