Romance for Celia

Romance for Celia

 

I want to put large scented roses in your hair,

and cover you with petals,

so you smell sweeter than a

garden in the high summer.

I want to cover you with oil of aloes

and lay you in a bed of sweet-smelling pine,

a large fluffy blanket protecting you

from the pine needles beneath.

I want to stroll with you through large gardens,

along paths where flowers invade the stones

and bees are happy gathering nectar

and flying to their hives,

where butterflies of unimaginable colours

wink and glitter in the sun.

I want to sit under the umbrella shade

of a pink and white blossoming tree,

with a picnic hamper spread before us

full of luscious strawberries and boysenberries,

and cool drinks of orange and lemon,

and lean against you

and you against me

and be content with each other's company.

Written in April 2006, previously published on Authspot.

One of those pretty awful poems

On Summer mornings the house can breathe

And though when we open windows wide

The flies arrive and drive their buzzing bodies

Hither thither helter skelter, the house still takes in

Gulps of air, as though in prescience aware of

Long-closed windows come Winter. 

                        The breathing river flows from front to

Back, and cleans the slate of all the un-Spring-cleaned

Detritus.  At least in my mind’s eye that’s how it goes.

A little breeze can sometimes blow and slam the doors,

Rattle windows, fling the curtains, push a toothbrush off the

Sill, drop it into baths (or toilet bowls).

For some reason this poem (written a few years ago) was listed in my files as 'One of those pretty awful poems.'   I'm not sure I entirely agree with myself.