For The Poets Poem by Leon Moon

I board the rim of a lonely boat
Named 'Her Art'
She tilts and quakes, as if drunk
On Eastern rum
Where she slumps- the breast-side
Lake, I paddle;
Behind the foliage and pea plants
Black eyes glare
With shaking spears, remaining silent
For words aren't worth the weight
Nor effort, as I'm too small
In a proffer of time, they leave
Returning to the wild, wearing
Golden figures as jewellery;
Peering up, a fusty smell swoons my brain
A castle, alas!
I bob, as a blanket of frost rests my strength
And I notice
A poor man, sobbing on the edge of a battlement
Corner-stoned L
"What's wrong with you? " I ask
"My boat! " he cries
"It's all I had! You stole her and she's sinking! "
And she was!
A wound on the Northern port
Gaped, splintering,
Floods of silver shells poured in
And I was swallowed- whole
And spat out, a particular taste;
My eyes,
Glazed by a bleeding crevasse
Caught a white dress
Fluttering among arrow slits
The Queen!
I swam where the water was brown
-under the closed drawbridge-
Where an all-black panda chewed a bamboo
Before I could speak,
It was gone- as a crow, made wingless by wood.
How do I enter?
As crests of water cradled me
Into the Sun,
Screams of tormented lovers and men battered by creed
Were heard beyond;
My hair-grain fingers clung medieval stone
Splitting arched bones,
Hatching the pain of longing
At last! A crevice!
I heaved myself upwards, battling liquid anchors
-I was an expatriate
I did not belong here, no one did;
My ears, a winter moon
Lead me to a clamour
Where I peeked
Through a mouse's window- defused astonished
To see a phenomenal woman
Choking on an endless torrent
And a man of wit
Pinned by the wall- stretching perceptions.
They were prisoners!
How long had they been trapped here?
A curtain from hell
Swayed open upon stage- a performance infused;
My heart exploded,
A roaring blaze, igniting embers of will
Among drained souls
And they rose, arose from the ashes
-In each dripping cell
And exhibitions, Apollo's children broke free
And I ran,
Ran to the courtyard, squared by the drawbridge
-I was greeted
And unnoticed, by a stampede of dirty feet
Sprinting freedom;
We jostled against limitation as arrows of lead and ink fired upon us
-Many were struck
And Lalla fell, dead, resting among a flower bed.
We surged-
Finally! - The castles tongue stuck out,
Resting above the moat
The weeping man was reunited with his boat!
We were indomitable!
We were air, alive!
And this is life!
You seize, too.