Filament

Ah, so here is the drowning they spoke of

In hushed tones and

Tomes of loss 

echoing ages of rotten paper 

wrapped in human skin

Is there no end to suffering?

Warn me all you like of the disasters to come,

I will hold my head higher than centrepoint tower,

I hear the oxygen is thin up there

Which lends itself to

Grinning in absence,  

Open the door to naivety and

Gullible, I travel through myself to

Myself,

To you,

Splashed across this interminable sky.

The first time I hung off the cliff’s edge,

She came to me all lightbulbs and

Shining filaments and said,

‘I don’t even think you know..’

Before glowing at me from

Another place,

Another time when we knew not of this,

Her face burned my eyes,

I stepped back, 

Soul on fire, 

Desperation in my eyes, 

I forgot what it was like, 

to speak with her. 

The second time I hung,

Came a note from a person I do not know,

I have never known,

Except through storytelling,

Letters back home and

Now this post-mortem moment,

Saying,

‘she spoke of you, highly.’

Said ‘the shine you gave her was why she came here,’

Said ‘these times are confusing,

But her love is not’.

The third time I hardly gripped the cliff at all,

Let shale and dirt slip me further away,

Til my shaking body filled with wind,

Body heavy and spirit on secondment,

You came back to me again,

Through a stranger and his prayer,

He mediated between me and the God I forgot was there,

Softly said, ‘don’t forget this one,

Father, let down your hair,

That she might ascend through sky

Beyond her despair,

‘Father, she hurts and needs your care,

Don’t forget her,

Down here.’