These Paltry Lines Poem by Rani Turton

These paltry lines cannot bring you back
Into the halo of this street lamp outside my door;
I thought I had words but even they
Slipped from my grasp and went away.

I thought I had words but even they
Could not make you stay. I asked the earth
To still my heartbeat and then say
If your shadow fell across my hearth.

I was a paltry poet with paltry lines;
I was a paltry poet with simple rhymes
I was a bard, a dreamer looking for signs.

Nothing did I have; my only lifeline
Was this: rhyming these paltry lines;
Words, words that I tried to align
Into a kind of poem that kind of shines.

Copyright: Rani Turton