Elizabeth Shield

your accent is like, cherry-caramel to my ears
my favourite flavour, and it kills
me when you stop talking, to ask if I am
listening; I hear your tones more than your
...

burgundy, the color of wine
and cashmere
a noble stain, sweet and dark
like old music, enchanting yet haunting
...

Piano player take my by the hand
And tell me how galaxies revolve
With starry arms and nebulous fingers
Etched in your mind
...

They say what we've accomplished now,
is all the fruit of all we've wrought
how beautiful it is, they say
ignoring how one-sided this
...

You are azure, like the sky and,
at one point, I thought that I
could fly,
up into the wide expanse
...

The grass flickers, as the
Wind pushes it down, in
A gentle but determined
Motion, sweeping upwards to
...

Wind in the trees
Pollen in the air
Water from the garden hose
Dripping from my hair
...

Your eyes are like starlight,
scattered constellations and I am all agog
and I am lost, because
I cannot tell Orion from the Pleiades,
...

Mandarin orange, sunset gleam
Across the slowly painted hills
A fire is dying in the sky
Upon the wire the crows alight
...

When did we ever say it, that we would always be together
Naïvely thinking, the world was ours, taking it at our leisure
The harsh facts, life is ephemeral, fleeting swiftly on hinds feet
We deigned to forget our troubles, and doused ourselves in pleasure
...

To while away the waning hours
beneath the scarlet, sunlit leaves
Now or never, say the flowers
they are dying as you grieve
...

So see the poetry and shine
Your words make you as bright as stars
About you is a graceful air
While concentration fills your face
...

Silken halos round the lights
Wreathing unfamiliar nights
Dawn is still to far to say
I wish it were another day
...

melancholy
midsummer's dreamers
passing sunny days and clear blue skies
and missing the rain
...

'Kill me now! ' the writer said, his fountain pen in hand
the crimson stain upon the page had marked it like a brand
his rheumy eyes and matted hair suggested age and disrepair
he had no pride left to wear, and said glibly with distant stare
...

Shelves for books and shelves for thoughts
Boxes, leaflets and brochures
Wrought iron ends the paper lineup
Silken characters thread old scrolls
...

Wizened, like the mountain ridges in the west,
you gazed across the desk at me, rheumy eyes unblinking,
and asked me what I wanted from life
...

did I mention how I love grey woollen sweaters?
but not on me
I always picture them on you
in the autumn, streets wet from rain
...

The looks are telling, and they reach
across the distance. From me to you.
You haven't a clue, that I am
magnetized.
...

Clear and crisp, the night that hovered, seeped into my soul.
The distant glittering host descended, near and soft, and light.
I stood, ankle-deep in salt water, neck deep in ambient atmosphere,
Eyes singing, in the starlight, a sound beyond all words,
...