What The Wind Gave Me Poem by Tsunami HiroshiSu

He was there the day I was born
Rustling in the curtains
Dancing round the room
And my parents were so happy
They didn't think of shutting the window
Of shutting him out
So he played with my mobile and tickled me with gusty fingers

And as I grew older he left me gifts
I left the window open for him
He would alight on the sill
He gave me a pocket watch
The most precious gift still
I lined up shells and sea glass beside the window seat
For him to sweep away

The first time he spoke to me I was eight
His hair was wind swept
His eyes a gleam, two circles of sky
And clouds scudded across his shoulders
His smile quirked mischievously
And he said his name was Win
He was so glad I had come into the world to play with him

He turned and jumped out of the window
Turning into thistledown
That raced along the cliffs above the sea

Then I was sixteen
And he played with my hair
The wind lifting it off my neck
He stole my straw hat and sent it spinning down the hill
I chased through the grass
Then he was there handing it back
Blowing me away from those I was fated to be with

His kisses like breaths of summer
And he loved me gently
The wind carrying us through the sky
Riffling our hair
But I knew it could not be
The wind could not be a steady husband

Win said love could find a way
But the wind left broken that night
And I watched him race away
Tossing clouds aside

The day I had to marry another
There was not a breath of wind
And I could not breathe
It was as though he had stolen the air from my lungs

James was a good father
A good man
But when he said my name
It did not have the allure of the wind

Grace was a dreamy child
Her eyes as blue as slices of sky
And the wind was gone from our house
Though the windows still stood open
Lonely
Waiting for a breeze
To bang about the shutters or disturb the curtains

And James knew that I was sad
Knew I loved another
And when he was asleep I would go out onto the balcony
And wish for a breath of wind

Claire
The wind said

My hair, unbound in waves, lifted
Stirred by the wind
I looked up and he was there
Ten years I'd waited for Win to return
Ten years he'd blown around the globe
Rustling palm trees
Gusting through canyons
Howling on mountain tops
Aching for me

He'd loved other women
He'd tried to forget me
I who had broken the wind
But he returned to me
To find I loved him
And James knew it

He caressed me softly
The wind breezing around me
And I told him Grace was his
Their eyes twin glimpses of endless sky
I stayed wrapped in Win's embrace
Until he placed me back on my balcony

Then thistledown whisked off on the breeze
To blow through the window of my little girl's room

The wind returned to our white washed house
High upon the cliff
That looked out over the ocean
Toward the point where the lighthouse ever spins

And he was always in my hair
The light had returned to my eyes

But it was too late
My body was fighting me
War raged inside me
A war I knew I could not win
For the tumors were part of me
Like I was attacking myself

But the wind was with me
And love will find a way
He played with my hair
As I watched it pile up upon the floor

My husband was there
And my daughter held my hand
And in the end they closed my window
For the wind carries infections
I was left inhaling stale air
Compressed through tubes
And I could not have the wind


The day of my mother's funeral
The air was so still and silent
I thought it might never be windy again
Everyone wore black
And looked appropriately aggrieved
My father was quiet

The mourners left the mound on the hilltop
That overlooked the ocean
A river of black trickling down
As I started to move away I heard someone's knees hit the ground

I looked back
A man knelt before her grave
His hair moving in a gentle breeze
And tears streaming down his face
He sobbed in anguish
I stood there watching for hours it seemed

Then he stood and the wind whipped around him
And he turned to look at me
His eyes the same blue as my own
The wind picked up my hair
Unwinding it from its careful braid and tossing it about

He raised his hand to his lips and blew me a kiss
Then he jumped into the air
And the wind whisked away the thistledown
I was left wondering if he had ever really been there at all

But the wind whistled by my ear
I knew I had never been alone
I nodded
My lips formed a smile I didn't know was in me

'Good bye, Mother, '
Said I to the grave
'Good bye, Father, '
I whispered to the wind

Then I followed the wind home
And listened to him throw himself against the cliffs
Riling the ocean into a frenzy
Howling through the eaves
Moaning in misery
Grieving the only woman he had ever truly
Loved