Waiting/Hoping

the game

post our
post-coital rhapsody
we are awakened
by the harsh midday sun

we get ready and emerge
at the gate in minutes
and take a brisk stroll

we walk
outward and inward
step by step
inch by inch

our space
sacred
punctuated by
long silences

soon
our shared stride
becomes a contest
of life, our pace
quickening
a challenge

we glance
and weigh
our grain of
shared awareness

we come to a halt
let our fingers brush
painterly, animated
it starts at the webbings
rises upward
buoyed by our need

a ball of fire
it swirls up
and down
towards
the centres

soon
it is all
there is

to life

this manic longing
this dogged pursuit
of one another
this enigma
this arousal

and we
wait to trace
our way back
home

urgent
elevated

frantic.

God.

I've been waiting on you to unplug
to see the illusion and run
but your own thoughts block my words

take a hard look at fact
and where I've been from day one.

because every time I smile
I end up crying
filled with loss I wish i'd gone first

then i'd get the roses and tributes
tears on my photograph
instead of blame for failing at perfection

I should've left him here struggling
instead of believing I was the lucky one

standing alone on every first
usually sleep deprived and my last spent on film
while he laid in his grave
perfect

he loved me too though
just like you do
just like it

DELPHI

I knew it would happen one day,          
Being an oracle and all,          
Diminutive, though status tall.          
           
Look, and regard, I've awakened            
swirling waters of future past          
counter-clockwise, your gaze to cast.
 
And there he was, with ease, to find,
Coming up the slope with others
Dragging slowly along behind.
 
He cannot possibly have heard,
But it will make sense once he does,
When all's revealed by my word.
 
Why am I anxious to extreme?
It's not like I have never known
Answers to everything I'm shown.
 
My hair, my gown and sandals worn,
A mess around me, hither borne,
By clockwise future waters, told.
 
While I watch him walk, and burdened,
He looks askance, and determined,
As if it's me he wants to know.
 
And now the time at last arrives.
He waits for me to summon him,
With stoic glance, my hand complies.
 
He takes two steps by light of torch,
My face filled with authority,
My mind, a blank, so suddenly.
 
His youth is not quite what it ought,
But still, he seems most beautiful,
Fair-haired, with skin of milk, is wrought.
 
Without a word, I wait upon
This man of height, stands over me,
With crane of neck, so I may see.
 
The mouth where words will issue forth,
If little more, I bare the rate,
Which, dare it cost, what time is worth.
 
He has his chance, please, take it now
To ask of me, of global fame,
At last, it comes, "What is your name?"
 

THE DAY I WAKE TO FIND YOU
(a sestina)
 
The day I wake to find you lying there  
With twisted sheets in morning sleep with me  
To find your face in close relief aware  
And know the feel of your hand on my skin  
Your sleepy eyes as they slowly embrace
That you and I become our day’s first sight  
 
To wake and have your wonder fill my sight  
Recalling my last view, you sleeping there  
Once claiming love in ourselves' full embrace  
In giving all to you and you to me  
To trade our "words for words" in "skin for skin"  
That we in love become fully aware  
 
For touch enthralls our verse in flesh aware  
Ourselves from page to naked in our sight  
As if our poems found in formly skin  
Had brought us face to face in loving there  
So we became as one this you and me  
And sent our bodies gifts of words' embrace   
 
I rise for you as you for me embrace  
Senses engaged electric and aware  
My reveling in you as you in me  
Honor in touch and taste in sound and sight  
That in our want we bring each other there  
A worship born in words, complete in skin  
 
As we anoint, awash the other’s skin  
With open gates of higher love's embrace  
Now lost in afterglow collapsing there  
The hum we feel together now aware  
We taking joy in all that fills our sight  
Spent love’s expression shining, you and me  
 
Enfolding then, as sleep takes you and me  
Our bodies touch as if we had one skin  
Eyes slowly close enjoying one last sight
Together still as new dream worlds embrace  
Though sleep has claimed, we remain aware  
That we in loving arms entwining there  
 
To drift in dreams ‘til new dawn’s sight embrace  
When your hand on my skin brings me aware  
The day I wake to find you lying there  
 

I try not to be vain
I hold my head up high,
but don't stick my nose in the air.
I try so hard,
I give so much,
and I'm hoping that soon,
I'll get something back

My thanks to all who put in their public vote!

Congratulations to Al for the win, and to seekingkate for joining me as runners-up... I'm in stellar company!

Congrats Al, and everyone who entered
This was the first competition I've held and it turned out great.

Oh WOW!

Thank you so much for this, this was such an awesome comp!

Grats to you magda, you did good here.
grats to Kate & Pandora, that was some stiff competition

Love at you all -x-

Congratulations Al on the win...
and to Jade-Pandora for runner up along with me...as you said we're in stellar company  ^_^