Counting to ten

[Keith]

Edit 1

The moment fell beyond my reach,
too young to explain the details
embroidered on its
white cotton sleeve.
Camcorder tapes
focusing on falling flat,
they only see the red
in stainless steel.

I trusted mother,
she carried it behind closed eyes,
curved reflections pushing
shapes from inside balloons.
Caged monsters roared and paced
strange, small and crumpled
screwed up faces to face, embrace.

Then quiet comes with shallow sighs,
softend lights fall into eyes
Just a flash, a golden trace
a hiding place beneath the deep.
I touched translucent fingernails
so small, so imperfectly real.
Inhaled your sweet and perfect pale
that pungent scent of skin.

My breath spread incantations
that promised you our warmth.
The kiss I whispered into life
will catch each falling thought,
tell stories of the worlds we’ll weave
help carry all the love you brought.



Original
I placed a moment out of reach,
too young to explain the details
embroidered on its
white cotton sleeve.
Those damn camcorder tapes,
noisily focusing on
early modern medicine.

I trusted it to mother
she carried it behind closed eyes,
curved reflections pushing
shapes from inside balloons.
Pop
and the light that enters opened eyes
scatters into saucers,
settling like fish returning
to the deepest parts of the pool.
We lay there casting quiet
as the battle tent raged above us.

I touched translucent fingernails
so small, so imperfectly real.
Inhaled your sweet and perfect pale
that deepened scent of skin revealed.
My breath spread incantations
that promised you our warmth.
The kiss I forged on your forehead
would only let in dreams, tell stories
of the worlds we’d weave and all
the songs they’ll come to sing.