Two Poems by Christopher Collingwood

 

A Detour invites the Golden Dancer 

 

Tempting the sight  

of ruin, triumph is the lure 

of the Golden Dancer –  

the pocket freed, risk of favour, 

charity of odds – awaiting the 

idle breath of a traveller. 

 

A talent in coin – romances 

the gold, setting the heart 

on a wooden stage, building theatre, 

escaping the world, enticing need 

in a tired wanderer, stealing  

chance, spinning life into a million  

dreams, exalting tally of a journey. 

 

Remedy for a sword warn 

hand, the taste of gambit 

feeds the desperate, a hope  

offered anywhere – a tavern, an inn, 

a guild shop, a street corner, the glance 

of a passing traveller, anywhere 

coin is equal, and greed is willing. 

 

Slowly spinning, 

the coin lays an unspoken  

path, the last plea for the  

journeys worth – the dawn 

of charity, as the coin lays 

life under the palm. 

 

The spin ends – the quest 

continues, finding warmth 

in a new purse, or despair 

for tomorrow’s meal; you gain 

or you lose, each risk diverts 

the trail, changing the tide of quest, 

endless appeal of the Golden Dancer. 

 

 

The Past Reclaimed in Silent Lies 

 

Regret is trust in parlay, 

the resting glance of 

memory, the eye surrendered, 

choice inscribing the 

dying name to parchment –  

a look that seeds the face,  

echo that recalls a person, the gambit 

of certainty – leading the mind  

to warrant a trial, the second guess 

that fosters yesterday. 

 

Recollection offers a callous edge – 

a greeting that lacerates  

the soul, alluding face, deceit  

gaining portrait – a warrior once 

favoured, the skilled hand, oath 

taken by sword, the betrayal  

nurtured in kinship, fought in 

silence – the hidden dagger, 

long before the journey began,  

before the battle, before starvation,  

before the test of weather, before  

the trial of pain, a trust that became life. 

 

Crumbling domain of will, 

severed anguish of a brother – 

a victim of reliance,  

the taken hand, wolf that 

devours oath, dying in remembrance, 

a crystal lie – the rush of 

blood, blade piercing pretence, 

nativity staining steel, flesh 

paying the tally, conceding 

ego, finding defeat, the forsaken  

heart, deaths demand, claimed by 

the quest, there is only one option  

– fight for your life. 

 

Christopher Collingwood was born and raised in Sydney Australia. He completed university in Sydney and graduated with a degree in business studies. Chris has devoted his spare time to writing, with recent works published in Andromeda Spaceways, Abyss & Apex, Hexagon, New Myths, Shoreline of Infinity, Silver blade and the recent Smoke in the Stars anthology, among other dimensionally unstable places.