TheBanyanTree: APPARITIONS

[smack58 at nycap.rr.com]

APPARITIONS

#1

Apparitions of a daylight kind
Stand among the flames
In the kitchen
Casting spells
Of dizziness
With strokes
Of bluish 
Whispers.

The sense of it
I cannot make out
For nothing burns.
The destruction and ash
Are only in my
Heart and soul,
Now held in
Willowy hands,
Squeezed,
For the sake
Of memories,

And when none are found
The hands disappear
And the flames
Grow dim.

My heart is given
Back to me
On a burlap pillow,
My soul
On a broken china plate…

…and with that
The sun disappears
And the night songs begin.







APPARITIONS

#2

He was against the wall
A see-through vision
Tall and bulky
And green—
The green of a not
Completely ripened pear.

He lifted his hands and his eyes
As though calling upon the heavens
—or hell,
The waters of the sea roared in
Covering and filling the floor,
The bathtub, the sink, the room,
Yet my feet remained dry
My footing
Sure and strong.

He breathed a deeper breath
Than wind itself,
And reached for me.

Weightless,
He set me upon the moon,
The light behind his eyes
Stars In the black/brown hole
Of his face.

Slowly he began to disappear
With the mist of the clouds;
And the coming of the dawn.

His withered hands
 Held me then
For just a moment.
Then let me drift
to the waters below
Now rippling slowly,
Letting me bathe
In the deep green water
of the sea.





APPARITIONS

#3

In the gray pink light
Of dawn
I saw them in my dreams 
Then again
In my half-sleep.

They danced small
Upon my pillows,
Pulling my sheets
And blankets
To the floor,
Hiding in the ruffles.

I awakened all the way
And plucked one
>From the bedpost,
Only to have it dissolve
In my hand,
And appear against the wall
Where he clapped his wings
And motioned the others
Away into the wind
Beyond my bedroom window.



















APPARITIONS

#4

It is with great lucidity
That I tell you
I saw the mist
Descend among the trees
And a figure
Much resembling
My mother
Step forward
To shake her
Finger at
The illusion of my love,
Who stood with his face to the wind,
To let me know
She did not 
Approve of him!


APPARITIONS

#5

In the snows
Of Germany,
My father held a gun
Dressed in the uniform
Of a soldier
With men at his feet
And men at his rear.

He called to me
To come and see
That which he killed
In the name of the living.