Oranges (Video)

I miss you today dear lover,

How you’ve out-aged me in death.

Immortally young. Ancient in memory.

Ageless Apollo.

Are there still oranges where you are?

Do the copper leaves still fall about your feet?

And is death kind in your defeat?

I miss you today dear lover,

Your apple-grin smile that ensnares me,

Your brassy laugh that knocks air into the soul,

and makes the windows rattle.

I miss you today dear lover,

On a far-away coast,

So far from your grave,

I don’t know these winds,

The sky isn’t vital with that screaming thunder,

And your voice is still,

Even in memory.

I miss you wry humour,

Your simple kindness.

I miss your singular determination,

Your childlike ability to get lost in wonder.

I am sad to say that today was a good day:

Anniversaries being what they are.

And I have no desire to join you,

So I beg you to be patient.

Time will have us all in the end,

And there are oranges enough for now.

-o0o-

Lines

Too much of my life,
                is full,
of attempted lines others drew,
                                         in my sands.           
Their battle lines, scratched across,
my body, my sex, my mind, my life...
...their permissions, prohibitions,
petitions, and protestations.

And how they rage and weep,
when my tides turn,
and wash their little lines away,
as if they were never even there.
Respect the ground you stand on, chaps.
It is deep, and hungry, and you are very...
                  ...very...
                               ...small.

~Charl Landsberg
2019