Rainbows


I sit in the kitchen with Yoshi,
drinking from enormous mugs,
I wouldn't buy that big
but Yoshi is 7 foot tall,
unmarried, not particularly eligible
and holds this impossible torch
for a woman who kissed him once
then danced through the cobwebs
to other lands and distant loves.

Yoshi can make a good coffee,
not one of those silly fancy ones,
a good bitter, earthy coffee
that evokes memories
of a little girl sitting at a pine table
imagining stories from the woodgrain
and watching kitchen dramas unfold
as papa wrangles and mama sighs
her long black hair scented
in an aroma that still haunts and eludes her.

The kitchen that we now sit in
is chic, smart, with clear cut lines,
everything is hidden or highlighted
and polished by a polish lady
who comes in three times weekly
their are no drifting stains or smells
of culinary delights and failures
just Yoshi, the long flank of his legs
stroking the lacquered flooring
while I perch on a stool designed
for the impossibly tall.

Upstairs lies memories that
should never have been allowed
and the silence in the kitchen
deafens me, I take solace
in the murderous tick tock
of an antique clock that sits
out of place in otherwise perfection.
After coffee there will be some explaining
and a magic trick in how easily
I can disappear;
the endless, invisible tightrope
of a ballerina falling from grace.
I will kiss, thrice
one for each cheek and one to the air
then run to catch the vapour trail
until next time, maybe
or somewhere where rainbows
really do have pots of gold at the end.




Poetry by Elle The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 284 times
Written on 2021-07-02 at 18:18

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Ducks
I simply adore the imagery in this piece. I can see it so vividly and my imagination is on fire with what came before and what comes next.
2021-07-03


jim The PoetBay support member heart!
I agree with Larry, this is classic Elle, so many fine touches (imagining stories in the woodgrain), and so fine overall. Just lovely.
2021-07-02


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
This has all that I look for in an Elle poem, fine descriptions of the present, recollections, and longing for a more satisfactory future. It's very enjoyable.
2021-07-02