Stephen Harris

Who was I
I was the gentle breeze that touched the trembling leaf
The violent storm that broke the stubborn bough
A lover's breath on Heathcliff's heath
...

Songbirds singing
Under blue skies
While busy bees raid
Trembling flowers
...

I lit a candle in memory of your loss.
A solitary sentinel that held its torch high,
burning bright for the child that so briefly lived.
And so I sat in silent vigil of heartfelt hurt,
...

The nights full moon calls Morrighan wake
And spirit soar with wild wolfs howl
That echoes through vale and dale to star.
Let her stir before Cerridwens wane
...

A lad who skipped science at school
Charred his fingers while handling hot fuel
For he wanted to know
If coals burned when aglow
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Quietly tears flow
For the love of a mother
Distantly dying
Many questions unanswered
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Prepare the horse and chariot
Paint your body blue with woad
And take your oaken battle shield
The quench hardened iron sword
...

You were born an emerald among thistles.
Vulnerable to the eye, yet destined to fly with angels.
Your soft bristles promise the cold, a poisonous flame,
That will burn and will blaze till you own a new name.
...

Sometimes when I doze between worlds real and unreal
A dream of recurring nightmare performs before my mind
Where all the stars slip in unison with shifting poles
And brimstone burns fiery sulphur, scorching skies.
...

Richard the third, the Plantagenet head
Confused an old lass when found dead
'Why bury him here
In a carpark, its queer,
...

Infinite patters
Of rainfall, splashing, pooling;
Quenching the lawns thirst.
...

What wakes me from my beauty sleep
Such a cacophony of noise
It makes it hard on this Lords day
For a lady to keep her poise
...

By his bedside, the audience sat or paced about
the single mattress of the dying man.
Dying, yes, but maybe already dead.
Though few cared for this gentleman of the road,
...

It was during the lockdown one year
That a wife told her husband "sit here,
Your hair needs a snip"
Then after a slip
...

If I were a bat,
I'd hang from the brightest light,
And eat and sleep till far too fat
To have any use for flight.
...

Order! ! Order! !
Said the judge with OCD,
I frankly must stress that your dress is a mess
And you're taking a liberty!
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The wounding word is easily cast, simply willy nilly,
With little thought and even less of care;
Yet the worm burrows within the walls of the inner sanctum,
Devouring peace, while peace gently rests,
...

Around the Semi-circle square,
Entombed behind a bronzen stare,
The silent watchers do forbear
With all those they beseech.
...

Were there an astral scale or heavenly well,
That could hold the equal measure of my love,
I would silence my tongue, and nevermore quell
Your doubting heart, for sight alone would prove enough.
...

Blindly I traverse your virgin soil.
My senses, heightened to the slightest tremor,
seek an oasis hidden beneath a nylon canopy.
I thirst for your shores my love.
...