Yours Truly 2017 / Cascadia College / Bothell, WA 2017 YT Online Book | Page 15
My heart was raining yesterday.
Gloomy wool clouds had gathered there to lean on each other’s shoulders
and cry and cry.
Their woe fell in waves and sighs
that softly sagged with the weight
of their choking misery.
Their echoes folded thunder over a sodden scape drenched in melancholy,
as a grandmother’s quilt
fallen in the sea.
Puddles gathered fat red drops and held them close
in dense, foggy breath.
And I fell asleep, my dear, to the rolling of slowly bleeding waves
and the wrenching faraway sobs of
some lost and lonely child.
But in that sleep, love, I dreamed of you.
And while my eyes were closed
the Earth shifted her weight
to the other foot.
Those clouds, so sad, lifted their heads and sniffed
and wiped their silver eyes.
Their drumming, windy heartbeat slowed and calmed.
Those crimson puddles sank away, pulled by a tear-rusted anchor
to settle at the bottom of an indifferent ocean
full of rusty anchors from a thousand ships
whose captains were too young or drunk or tired or selfish
to sail them.
Those woolen, punished clouds rubbed sleepy eyes and yawned
their open mouths never closing.
And in those mouths I saw your hands
pushing heavy shoulders apart
to let in a tired setting sun.
Nimbus and cumulus snuggled close
in the massaging warmth of your
humming oranges and purples.
And so the sky slept while I slept
and the crescent moon was a toothless smile
to mimic mine.
And I dreamed of you, dear, and completely forgot
that my heart was raining yesterday.
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