(Yellow)

A yellow train of melodies
unsung
A trace on paper, the paper itself

I dreamt of you as I woke, you were gone
My lids lifted but could not see
for glare and glory
as veils parted

Paper and lines alike faded, paths were lost
The secret corners of the page shrank deep
in their tiny ochre shells
feigning sleep

The writing fades  as in time suspended
You leave me no choice
but to stay
while I hover over the silent thought
that meant to be written that day

The one I cannot start to guess, the one
I forgot in our secret place
untouched
after you'd left

in the shrivelling slowness of life without

The yellow scroll still speaks of you
It lifts against the sun rays, thick with dust
at the window
Our window where no nails again will rust

I would watch your form afar, from the dark
writing your story on a path unmarked
when all around you
the ochres, brass, coppers and gilded glass
turned from golden mist to light

I see the writing of you everywhere
The landing places where your spirit lived
a while
I see your thoughts with my soul's eyes, from there
I get up, leave the room and smile

enriched in the matters of earth and God

I hummed along the melodies
you wrote
and traced in song my train of life and thought
passing me by and moving on, then fought
our fate

I took the shrunken corners of the page
The mist, the dust, the rusty window nails
and turned the tiny ochre shells into
the shrinking violets I'd seen in you
awaiting dawn

I woke up all over and saw
the little yellow train you'd draw
for me
each time you left a note, your melody
traced on paper, your promise of return

I dreamt of you, that you had gone, were lost
It got hazy. When you returned at last
among the tiny shelters of ochre
you like the pearl, them the oyster

I held my shrinking violet
I held her till the sun had set
awaiting dawn
It came on shiny pearls of dew
opened her folds and I just knew

the old had all but gone

Then from the corners of my sleep I saw
a form, a flame from the shadow
The brightness of a violet heart
 (last line(s) still hesitated upon)

SC Dale