From the Shadows


For years it hung in the shadows
Like an old coat cast aside
Waiting for the weather to change,
Watching the leaves turn
From verdant hues to vibrant splashes
As the wind played in the trees
Like maracas and tambourines 
Tapping out the rhythm 
Of a long forgotten song. 

And still, in the dimness of autumn’s dusk
It hung there, caught in fleeting glimpses
When the sun angled just so
And the branches dipped in curtsey 
To bid adieu to fallen leaves
And winter swept the canvass clean. 

Season after season, it gathered dust,
An old familiar memory 
That slept on the edge 
Of not-quite-forgotten places,
Overgrown with weeds and cloaked
With cobwebs  

But where thorny branches twined,
Tiny flowers bloomed,
Their petals fingered in the soft light
Of wayward moonlit nights
And the ice began to melt
Feeding rivers with the thaw 

And there it awakened
To the kiss of morning, 
Like the flutter of a butterfly heart
So long dormant
As it emerges from its cocoon
With new-found wings,
Drawn from the shadows 
To the hush of tender whispers
And cradled in the hands of Love


 

Janet Reid
september 2008



Awarded by Poetic Constellations ~ Rick ~ September 22, 2008