Clouds (Version 1.b.)

* This is a poem that wrote over two years ago, and have rewritten, but it is one of my favorites. If you have already read it, please feel free to not comment. Don;t want to force anyone to read. But for those who have never read, and want to see what I have done with the poem, come look!


There was a shift somewhere in the night,
                a pause, where I melted into you,
                                coffee kissing caramel,
                and for just one moment,
                a slight hesitation transpired:
                                I swear I could hear the clouds.


I was wrapped in your stealthy embrace,
                hand clasping hand, the gentle caress
                                of two pulses synchronized,
                conjoined, and it dawned on me
                for the first time in many cranberry moons
                                and sweltering summers,
                that I felt safe, appreciated, joyful –
                                could it be that I felt loved? –
                and, as we lay, I prayed and forgave
                sullen secrets and betrayals ago, betrayals
                                that had feasted on blanketed fear
                                                and palpable pain.

I forgave me, you, irony, and destiny,
                established faith in feeling human, whole,
                                for all its riches, glories, and pratfalls.
                I saw that little boy, that sweet soul,
                                and rather than cover my eyes blind,
                                or bend an ear towards self-loathing,
                I completed him, just as I felt the wind rush
                past sticky lies, just as I heard
                                sparrows strum in sycamore trees.
The clouds, the clouds: I swear I could hear the clouds,
                feel your breath, allowing the tension
                in swollen muscles and cynical bones
                                                to finally relax.

I have no illusions that there will be eternal sunshine
                in silken shadows, but there is no doubt
                                I have been changed, transformed,
                                and if tonight delays tomorrow,
                                if yesterday yearns to haunt,
                there will be an unspoken truth
                                that will forever remain
                                                in just three words,
                                foolish words perhaps,
                                but words I desperately seek,
                                                nourish, and covet:

                                                 What about today?