(no subject)

[apiphile]

next time we will not build ships

Next time we will not build ships
No, we will wade out in the waters
And eyeball the horizon where the sun lives
Knowing that where the light lies
Is also where the night is born;
We will accept that time is not to be caught in cogs and bars
But to be glimpsed in all the air kissed by a falling leaf
To be reflected in the many tears of the dancing stream.
We will appreciate this island for what it is:
A prison to protect the world from us
And we will listen, my love,
We will obey when our parents say
Do not cross the ocean toady
- next time we will not die on the battlefield
- next time we will not to Troy
- next time we will smooth clay with our clinging fingers
And soothe pain with our careful words
We will create, and not destroy and we will not--
Next time
Next time... We will not build ships.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Beautiful, and a really interesting perspective expressed.

[gool_duck]

I like this.

[kat_lair]

Ughhhh... This is so good, goddammit. Also it's like the mirror to one of my old poems (conversion)

A prison to protect the world from us fuck you yeah.

Guh.

[apiphile]

Glad you like it! Do you have a link to the poem?

{I'm trying to figure out what kind of poems this one magazine wants, and hoping that they're not like the FUCKING AWFUL self-conscious spoken-word SHIT that was at Trans Pride... but fear that might be what they're after.}

[kat_lair]

This one https://boneverse.dreamwidth.org/20920.html I keep shoving it at competitions and magazines on occasion but so far no one's loved it as much as I do :D

(Good luck! I like some spoken word but I'm more of a reader than listener when it comes to poetry so rather think it needs to stand on its own without a powerful performance behind it)

[apiphile]

I feel like they'd actually work well as part of a series - this one, that one - I think I have a poem somewhere from backalong which was called 40 Days Without Sleep which is about being forced to be a messiah and wanting to back out of it...