The python crawling
by the car
a step away from
me
has curled
around my darkest fears
and crawled into
my sleep
it’s not alone
there’s a taipan
and an adder
and a brown
snake with a glare
that froze me as
it disappeared
up the stairs into
my fears
it’s there waiting
to drop down from
the ceiling
of my overactive
brain
through the
fissures of my dreams
to the nightmare
of my days
living by cane-field
streams
in among these slithery
things.
This world
is full of mysteries
and puzzling things
but where to start
and where to end -
there’s the wonder
of this planet earth
and the universe
that houses it
and all that live
within and move
upon it -
and there’s
Stonehenge
on Salisbury Plains
5000 years old
and engineered
with primitive tools
and minds
whose resolve
conquered a task
we are still
trying to fathom -
and then there’s
Vincent’s Starry Night
conceived through
iron-barred windows
it’s haunting beauty
the gift of Vincent’s
searching eyes –
I wonder how he’d see
us all today
and what his paintings
would have to say
about the things
we see through
shielded eyes -
would they say
as he once did
that the heart of man
is like the sea
with storms and tides
but that somewhere
in its depths
there are pearls –
maybe now
we should harvest them.
Vincent Van Gogh's beautiful 1888 painting of a Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Me from Pixabay
When
I walk
upon
the beach
I
want to gather up
all
the pebbles
and
shells
and
gaze upon
their
timeless beauty
and
I want to listen
to
the timpani
of
waves
breaking
on
the shore
as
a choir
of
seagulls
sing
high above
while
they wait
for
their supper
and
I want to watch
the
sun
paint
the sky
vermillion
and
tangerine gold
and
I want to bathe
in
twilight’s
lilac
afterglow
as
gentle
sea-breeze
whispers
tingle
my skin.
