Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

poem- waking January 30, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 8:06 am
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Your morning eyes

still full of night

fall on me

soft as sunrise.

 

poem-flipped January 23, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:35 pm
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You need a silent rest

and I need recumbency.

I find a peaceful place,

I recline and read and write

throughout the night,

come to bed at dawn

to greet you as you rise.

But office workers

call at nine, nine thirty, ten

and so with blurry eyes I

pretend lucidity,

then fall back to sleep

until you return at two.

My head and ankle

have schedules

out of sync with offices,

though I’m in tuneful counterpoint

with you.

 

 

 

poem- connected January 18, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:37 am
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In the day

they brush past one another,

utter essential words,

questions,

instruction.

But at night,

they brush against one another,

whisper non-essential words,

passions,

exhortation.

 

poem-hard January 16, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 11:12 am
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He relies on the strength

of her heart strings.

She winds them around him

to hold him together

when he might rattle apart

in the shaking, quaking  times.

When she is weak and broken,

when she can not stretch her arms,

wide enough

to wrap heart strings around him,

he trembles and crumbles

apart.

When she is weak and broken,

he does not consider

that he could pretend

to be strong.

He could hold her heart strings,

and spin into her.

 

poem- dark January 15, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:24 am
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“A man like Matthew never frees himself of the shadows completely, but perhaps it is necessary to embrace the darkness in order to love him.”

~Deb Harkness in Shadow of Night

.

.

He thinks that he is so hard to love

he polishes his prickles

scours his scowls

brushes those glowering brows

as if this gruff front will keep his heart whole,

and impervious to the heat of a warm embrace.

But she wears fireproof gloves,

confronts him with frankness,

and forces him to face his fears.

She wraps his arms around her and

shows him his image in the mirror of her love.

 

 

poem-sliced January 12, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 4:13 am
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I was broken.

You sliced me,

knife blade deep,

peeling back skin,

excavating muscle,

exposing bone.

Then you

wound in screws,

stitched me together,

wrapped me in glass

and left a slash of

pulsing agony

to remember you by.

.

.

(Dedicated to Dr. Parfitt my orthopædic surgeon. 🙂  Sounds so much better as a metaphor; unfortunately he did all this literally!) 😉

 

poem-turn back time January 7, 2015

In Outlander,

Jamie, the good husband, is always giving his wife, Claire,  good advice.

He gives advice to keep her safe.

Stay here in this clearing, away from the soldiers.

Sage advice.

Stay here in the hold, away from the pirates.

Good counsel.

Claire, a modern woman with a mind of her own, makes her own decisions.

Her decisions often run counter to Jamie’s.

Invariably, Jamie has to bail her out of the trouble she’s landed in,

because she didn’t listen to him.

Today,

my good husband came home for lunch and said,

“Don’t go out there.  It’s treacherous!  I had to put down salt,

to melt the ice on the driveway!”

When he returned to work,

I saw the mail lady come.

I’m expecting a parcel.

There’s salt down.

What’s the worst that could happen?

I stepped on islands made by salt pellets

down our steep drive,

crossed the slippery road, and was within a meter of the mailbox

when I was splayed out on the edge of the road like a frog.

Ah!  So that’s the worse that could happen.

Stay here in the house, away from the ice, he’d said

And after, my good husband didn’t even say,

“I told you so.”

Oh, if I could turn back time!

.

DSCN1452  5 hours in Emergency because I have a spiral fracture in my ankle, and apparently orthopaedic surgeon will screw in a plate tomorrow, but at least I don’t have to pay anything for this adventure thanks to Canadian MediCare!

🙂

Outlander is written by Diana Gabaldon.  It’s an amazing historical, time-travel, adventure, romance, amazing novel that you should read.  My husband adores it, and tried to get everyone he knows to read it, as do I.

 

poem-awkward January 5, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:08 am
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He needs a bed,

and she has one,

so she welcomes him to it,

and he lies.

 

poem-wishes January 4, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 4:54 pm
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She wishes

he were the sort of man

who wears a fedora

with his jeans,

but has learned not

to expect so much

from a farm boy.

 

poem- oft December 28, 2014

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:30 pm
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In time

oft heard

silent memories

mingle in the mist

In time

oft mentioned

mysteries dance

upon your tongue.

In time

oft discovered

dreams twist destinies

toward truth.

In time

oft wished

entwined desires

develop into twin

devastations.