a hard fall from the myths
the shoreline
shapes your future
again and
again in its self-declared
lonely sweep of
water
forgetting takes
place
like tides pushing
forward then backwards
as they search for
words to hold their meaning
words etched into
the mountains
words tangled in
seagrass the ones
murmured by the
mermaids
all this wanting
is memory
full of dark and
light
and a hard fall
from the myths
the light will hold you
this morning the mountains
are a tumble of
green
they prove
you can still find
magic
in these days
of easy detachment
and in the knowing
that the light
will hold you
through images
that pale
like a camera
running out of
film
night birds
in this only
always night
when it is too
dark to see
you must
listen relinquish
the imperative of
words
even the poets are
born
without language
you watch that
sliver of a moon
slip into yesterday your present
is wrapped in
echoes of nostalgia
loneliness and
bootleg reality
it is a night of
old chanting
tide pulled waters
too many unmoored
words
and so you tell
your thin sad stories
to the night
birds the ones
shaped like poems
Linda King is the author of five poetry collections including Reality Wayfarers (Shoe Music Press, 2014) and antibodies in the alphabet (BlazeVOX Books, 2019).
Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals in Canada and internationally. She has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize and also for Best of the Net.
King lives and works by the sea on The Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
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