Faithfully, I Remained
I should have let
the floodgates open,
as you spoke
such drivel and drool.
The only fool left standing
(as you said you loved),
was me.
I cleared my throat
to expectorate,
recalling our lunch in Spain.
The Costa del Sol
as I’d lost my wallet
you explained,
she is a Yank
and does not fully comprehend.
Always,
the British slight.
Yet,
faithfully
I remained.
***
the time we found
the magazine
against the trees
naked
black and white
the time
of rains
drugged baby
kitten cries
cupped hands
saved what
we could
the time the words
were gone
friends
stripped them
held them
the time when
anger lashed
devouring
you stayed
and loved
the kindnesses
the kindness
the kind
***
Asylum from Ash
“Tranquility is the old man”s milk.”
Thomas Jefferson
Dizzy for that nutrient, we load the car.
The whole world is a pair of jeans
in need of a needle and patch.
We boomerang for mint green hills
no differently than heads
with migraines duck the light.
I doubted red geraniums this icy spring
since nothing glows brighter than war.
Doubted they’d rise through carapace soil,
react and grow to warm syringes of rain.
In the navel of drought,
blue bowls of water promise us
asylum from the cloying ash.
It’s quiet here,
except for the chattering birds
discussing the size of a seed.
Bears with noses in a cooler
eating someone’s morning eggs.
Rowboats slice a shadow’s dress.
After the wool, finger the silk.
A few loose thunder clots abide
like moccasins that pad a trail.
Moons these days —
bright silver shillings
plow through smoke.
I doze at peace, under a tree,
awaken to sights of a deer,
its hooves so close I mistake them
for pairs of brand new shoes.
by Janet I. Buck
“Asylum from Ash” was first published in _Azalea Plush._
***
Labyrinth
This seemed a place where
the dead and the living met
for a fraction of hovering time.
Cobwebs added eerie light —
gauze above amorphous sore.
Casablanca storms were new.
No foiled loves had soiled the rain.
All our props and costumes fit.
Weeping and all facts of grief
lay ahead of open eyes
without large sacks
weighted by the coming stone.
At that presumptuous age,
we were sure that a shoe
would lead to a foot.
A hat would uncover a head with hair.
We still believed in movie screens,
in metatags of heroines.
Suns knew nothing of eclipse.
Down the creaking basement stairs
sat nests of fragile Fabergés
existing for expectant crack.
Dusty treasures, dresser drawers,
someone’s musty voyages.
Give us boxes; we made shapes.
Never thought of mushy bottoms
giving in to lifting seasons from the land.
Each breath we took, each step we made,
a scoop across a stallion’s back
racing for the river’s edge.
Later we would wake like cats
that spent their lives in search of milk —
groping for the backspace key.
Death was such a distant game —
looking didn’t scorch our hands.
Even funereal black
was just a color of paint.
by Janet I. Buck
***