On Silken Paper

On Silken Paper


Black lines on splendid silken paper
Tell of fragile love’s weeping wounds.

Prayers carried close,
A letter slipped inside her blouse,
She hurries to find him, to touch him,
To reverse his heart’s impaling choice.
A stream rushing across concrete
Halts her splashing steps and
Quickens her breath.

At an open window a mother and father dance,
Music the laugh of babes and refrains of love.

She stands observing the ideal,
Wished-for bliss, a dream in her sleep
And in her youth and with the rain
Settles truth, wetting her skin, that
He is lost to her now, a squander of ink.
Turning back, the vision is
Silenced, torn and floating away,

Away to an ocean’s worth
Of humming black lines.