It's Still Life

A Cadralor Poem: Time and Tea

I.
Seems like just yesterday
I was wearing a woollen hat and long coat,
I was hunched over a snow shovel,
my grey hair, like tassels flying about,
my surrender flags of whiteness.

II.
Summer is channelling air,
warmth even in darkness,
baby birds playing gramophones, sound waves,
cleft mouths open and waiting
for their mothers, as soft as fabric.

III.
You stand at the table studying a road map,
routes and detours – Paris burns like a fever.
I drink tea, slip into a chair
like one end of rainbow, and watch time
curl and melt away.

IV.
Some days I hide from life.
Some days I’m a church in ruins.
Some days, I am a curved line. There was a time
when I thought the future was a faraway destiny.
Tea makes most things understandable.

V.
My son found old letters I wrote him decades ago.
He kept them in a shoe box. When he left home,
I felt him stand on my heart.
An empty church must feel that way.
I don’t think I’ll write today.

A Cadralor Poem. Artwork is created using Midjourney. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.