Candice James, Poet Laureate Emerita
New Westminster, BC CANADA
I
A north wind howls ‘cross a lone prairie.
where ghosts whisper to the hills at night.
Under skies peppered with thousands of stars
lost angels fly with eagles and doves.
II
In a place where clouds were torn from the sun,
and ice was shorn from winter’s last crop
I awake in the cool of dawn’s light grasp
to dance with desire in the jaws of death.
Tipping the scales at the edge of nowhere
in a halfway house, love lays mortally wounded
on a barbeque bed of shattered moonbeams,
sliced open and gutted like a coho salmon,
charred and smoking at the edge of death’s door.
In the hollowed-out cry of a cut glass scream
with broken wrists and scorched fingertips
I try to place the hot sparks of burning stars
back into my eyes that I may see you again…
even if only for one moment more.
III
In the cracked aftermath of the slow breaking dawn
I hide inside the stale whiskey breath
of single malt scotch and finely aged death.
I drift and dream…drift, drift and dream
of you and your stone-cold chiseled heart
and iron clad teardrops chained to my soul
with barbed wire songs and cut glass films.
IV
In an empty concert hall on a lone prairie
where thousands and thousands of drunken fireflies
sing tributes to your angel face and demon eyes
I dip my pen in the fresh blood of my heart
and write an epistle to your cheating soul.
V
There's a bottle in my hand filed with memories,
that have been danced to death by the blues;
then resurrected again by a chorus of jazz
in the freshly ground spice of worn-out tears.
And there's a room where soft music keeps playing,
in a dusty dream of slow burning embers.
At the darkened core of a sweet reverie
there’s a stone-cold sorrow and hot melting snow
chained to the rust of a dead memory.
Tonight we’ll dance in the devil’s cabaret.
I’ll take off my mask and shed my disguise
and my wounded heart will fall at your feet.
I’ll barter my soul to live in your love
and ride high in the tidal rise of your eyes.
I’ll surrender my soul in sweet crucifixion
to the melody fading with your heartbeat.
Slowly…
slowly I’m ebbing into your soul.
Take my breath…
take my breath away.
I’ve been dying of love for years.