Strange News

@skyloverpoetry

I remember your name, but have forgotten
who you are, and if I ever loved you

as if the faithful moon forgot to rise,
or I recalled it vaguely, from another time

but could not place it: I’d ask, Whatever
happened to that funny old moon?

It has been gone so long, I can’t picture
its face at all… But this is your face,

your voice that has faded from memory,
not the sliver of moon dwindling into blue.


A belated response to Magaly's Weekend Challenge: Strange News.

Sijo of the Season: Vulture Skies

It is the season of the vulture: they have shattered the wheel

of time on its axis: winged splinters, tearing up the clouds.

O traveller! See how they pick apart the bones of the sun?



Toni is our host in the Imaginary Garden, where she asks us to Season Your Poetry.
One of my favourite forms of Oriental poetry is Sijo, which I have attempted here, and in keeping with the present season in South Africa, which is late Summer.
These photos were taken a few weeks ago, when we followed the circle of vultures to their feeding ground.

Insensate

I’m hardly conscious, maybe half-alive,
but this palpable notion begins to prod
my peripheral vision. Synaesthesia. An odour
tickling the back of my throat. A low hum
bringing me to tears. My mind gropes for your hand.
Out of instinct, I guess. Easier to cling to familiar
visions, when all else is lost. Better still
to erase false sensation. Now you’re gone.


Marian asks us to play with Just One Word: Sensation

Unweighting

The memory is no friend. 
It can only tell you 
what you no longer have.
 ~Margaret Atwood

David Bulow
@bulow_ink
Used with Permission

It is better to forget
me, you say, as soon, I
will have forgotten you.

Burn my poems,
if you prefer a pain
both fierce and brief.

Do you imagine, I ask,
that will help you feel
less alive? Or less lost?

as I fold his torn pages
into paper kites and we
take turns at the window.

Better to leave words
to the whim of the gods.
And love no less for their loss.



For Art FLASH! in the Imaginary Garden, which features the art of David Bülow. Visit Bulow Ink to see further examples of his work. David can also be found on Instagram (Link under picture).
This poem is inspired both by his image and the poem A Visit by Margaret Atwood.