Valentine Ascending
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| Grigor Ivnav for Unsplash |
VALENTINE ASCENDING
I have crafted this kiss for you and you alone.
Other declarations of adoration doubtless await you in the full span of your life but this one, this is more dreamt than direct, and is the only one I have to give.
I have taken unholy risks to prove that I am what I cannot possibly be. What is mere flesh to do? Driven to its very end by words with weight, the forces which shape me swept off the streets, mere semantics? Yet I am not lost, any more than brown leaves are lost as autumn turns bitter. You know how to call me although my name in your breath would only confuse the air. But you could try. I'd like you to try.
I will wait for you at this one place in your journey, like the treasure you do not pick up until you are returning home, aware that your painful and distant destination changed nothing.
For you I am the wild lilac tree. For you I defy all limitations. City lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain. I am stronger than this. For you I spread my roots wide, accept any weather, to provide scent to your nights. I will be here. My lilacs will endure.
Enigma rules.
There is only certainty in my heart, and Fate has an imponderable, somber rhythm.
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This prosery piece was prompted by the line ‘…city lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain.’ by Helen Dunmore in "City Lilacs"
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And I was prompted, as usual, by those heartthrobs of my valentines Day, DVerse Poets.
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So articulate and earnestly written, this outpouring of love; so why am I feeling terrified right now?
ReplyDeleteI do love what you did with the prompt, the resiliance of those country lilacs I know well (as a matter of fact they may grow like weed)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your declaration of adoration, Chris, although it is outside the 144 word count – I made it 231. I especially like the direct address - it seems as if you are saying it to me! I would love to know what the ‘unholy risks’ were. I really love the phrase ‘my name in your breath would only confuse the air’ and the personification of the lilac tree spreading its roots wide, accepting any weather, to provide scent to the night.
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