Shawn L. Bird

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

poem- swing May 27, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:50 am
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In the photograph, you are on a swing in city park,

the yellow paint on the support bar is worn and flaking,

you grip the chain, suspended on the tiny rubber seat

your tall man body mashed.

You’re smirking so wide your dimple dances with the light in your eyes

Our first French kiss lingered in the air,

as our future flashed fireworks over your head.

.

.

This photo sits on my desk, and makes me smile every day.

 

reneged engagement March 11, 2013

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:12 pm
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He lies broken

pain unspoken

Splintered into pieces

Splattered into feces

Love rejected

Hope ejected

He lies broken

Pointless token

A golden dream

Not ring but phleame

His blood is let

His face is wet

The diamond cuts

into his guts

From sleep awoken

He is broken

.

.

(What does it feel like to be the guy proposing on the big screen, when the girl says no?  Ouch.)

This poem is mostly written in trochaic dimeter- STRESS-unstress X 2.  The exceptions are the second couplet, which is trochaic trimeter, and the penultimate line which adds an unstressed beat at the beginning).

 

love token February 14, 2012

Filed under: Commentary — Shawn L. Bird @ 7:07 pm
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On this Valentine’s Day, I’m thinking about love tokens…

I have a beautiful wedding ring, made for me by Natasha of Armeni Jewelers when they were here in the Shuswap.  It has two nicely sized diamonds, set above 22 little pavé set diamonds.  It’s about a centimetre wide.  Presently, it’s a bit too large, and so I have two small bands on either side to keep it on.  As a result, I have a solid inch of sparkle on my left hand.  (You can see it in this post).  Over the years, on several occasions  students have looked at my hand and gasped, “Wow!  Your husband must really love you!”

Well, of course he does.

However, the ring isn’t any demonstration of that.  Does a poor man love his wife less than a rich man?  Of course not!  When we got married, we were both in university.  We didn’t have a lot of money to spend on wedding paraphernalia.  Our entire wedding budget was $1000- for photographer, flowers, dresses, and reception!  I bought my husband’s ring with the prize money from a short story contest.  I had a nice little ring set, but I’d wanted white gold, and at the time we could only find yellow gold in the jewellery stores.  I didn’t know anything about hiring jewellery designers to custom make rings back then.  Twenty-two years later, there was a little more cash around, and so I designed a ring that is full of symbols: our initials, children and years together.  Natasha enthusiastically embraced the project, and a few weeks later, I had a gorgeous, unique ring.  Hubby had nothing to do with it!  In fact, I’d been wearing it two months before my daughter noticed it while we were sitting down at dinner one evening.  He might never have done so!  Even if he’d been inclined to re-create a ring for me, he wouldn’t know where to begin.

Love isn’t measured by the jewellery on the wife.  Love is measured by the loving heart, the calm demeanour, the comforting embrace, the secure support, and the consistency of years of togetherness.  Whether there is a fancy ring, a plain band, or nothing at all, the commitment is the important thing, renewed day by day.

Still, I don’t mind him getting the credit for the ring.  After all, he does love me a lot.

 

 
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