Amethyst Air Poem by Candice James

© Candice James Poet Laureate Emerita,
City of New Westminster, BC


He stands before a spiral of diamond steps
that tumble down
to a dark beyond the sun
below the dungeon cells of pirate plays
and swashbuckling fair-skinned days;
in a maze of dishonored scholars,
unsullied virgin dancers,
and wild and ribald drunken priests.

Minutes, hours, months and years pass by
in a cavalcade of breathless moments.

Then suddenly time stops,
spins on a quarter becoming a dime
and he finds himself
on the wrong side of his life.

He misses the way smiles topple
and tears fall
into a lopsided pool
of surreal waters
and amethyst air.

In a patchwork quilt of echoing screams
a still, small whisper wrestles him to his knees.

In the cloyed clutch of muted destruction
he watches the wrong side of his life
fall in sullied defeat
into the lopsided pool
of roiling waters
and fading amethyst air.