Willowwood Reverberations
a double cleave, with Dewi and Christina Rossetti
Dark years dragged by, and still,
Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,
Her soul floated upon still water
In night’s slack tide, bound them together,
Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Vermillion threads flowed blood to blood
To blood, to this mellifluous moment.
Pale and reluctant on the water’s brink,
Bitter air slipped between trembling fingers
Of gossamer, her breath hanging on a wispy frame
As on the brink of parting which must be.
Emotions condensed
Swirled and gathered into cumulonimbi above.
Each eyed the other’s aspect, she and he,
Without edges arising
And without sighs falling,
Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
To fall in a deeper starvation
Lingering in long-hidden hollows;
Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,
Of a potion that offers no healing
She wavered, and he,
There on the brink of life’s dividing sea.
For beyond this, what matter does earth?
The darkness called up to them, two
Lilies upon the surface, deep below
Where leaking scars are unseen, swim there
Lovers in the silent crushing. Two lost hearts,
Two wistful faces craving each for each,
Stroke for stroke, closing in, drowning out
Four trembling hands, and four quivering lips,
Resolute and reluctant without speech: —
Diving in an all-giving, all-emptying last surrender
Breaching the once-solid wall between worlds
A sudden ripple made the faces flow
Melding sins to absolutions
Shattering time’s continuity: forever became just
One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
She forgave life and let go
An arrow, oh-so misguided, yet flying true.
So those hearts joined, and ah! were parted so.
Adieu, mon ami.
This cleave collaboration by Tamyka Bell, Christina Rossetti, and Dewi is part of the Cleave Chain project on Chalkboard. To continue the cleave chain, copy Tamyka or Dewi’s part of the cleave from the original posts here:
The base poem can be found here:
