Chapter 108

****

Talk Amongst Myself 1976

You can go your own way

And off, away with you

Keep to your woodland paths

Hiding from the sunlight

Taking shelter beneath the trees.

I know you enjoy the violets

Trilliums and pussy willows,

And I am not needed for your world to be full;

But still I watch from the corner of my planet

And wish that I could step into yours.

For low I hear you calling

Even though you are silent

And only smile

Your wild rose smile

Which means nothing.

****

Under the Water 1978

Under the water a treasure lies

Under the surface down in the mud,

Under a tree trunk all mildewed with age,

And drawn to its glitter I swim and I dive

And even in dreaming I smile and I sigh.

For somewhere in history way back in my childhood

I lost and I buried a treasure superior

As I grew my body developed in error

I rode on the surface with cold tears and terror

Becoming a woman, no longer a boy,

And the man I envisioned sank under the waves