Paradise Lost

Image Source: leben-bleibt-wirr

Seeping Through

Parts of me The form and shape Of things

Once lost emerge

The soft belly exposed One arm coming free

Fleshy plaster Flakes and crumbles

You my dear, Are disgusted

The plaster on the floor The dust on my mouth The damp spreading stain Coating your fingers.

-Skye

Image Credit: Unknown though often attributed to Arthur Fellig (1889-1968) American Street Photographer.

Circus Comes to Another Small Town

The circus came along with its Tigers and tentpoles Elephants and elegant ponies Rolling right down main street

Excited whooping children followed

Wild free-range boys mostly (Where the girls free-range or otherwise were sadly, we will never know)

When the circus ceased its Creak and clatter Lurching to a stop

Those boys who ran alongside All the way from town Gathered before The fat lady’s trailer

Giggles crinkled their dusty faces Some pointed grubby fingers Some made faces puffing out their cheeks

Of all the wonders to behold When the circus comes to town

Those scruffy, wild, need a bath boys Ignore the acrobats, the orangutang, The clowns in make-up and everyday clothes

All of them Tumbling out of the trucks on the green just outside of town

To goggle and gape At Miss Ellie May Gump The fattest woman in world.

-Skye

Photographer: Jamie Cuen Source: angiefalanji

HAIKU-River Children

Children splash and swim, heedless of the dangers found in deeper water.

Image Subject: Friedemann Vogel Ballet Dancer Photographer: Not known Source:Peepchic

Defying Gravity

Defying Gravity is possible Consider when you left me I stayed in perfect Balance In defiance Of the inescapable Magnitude Of Your

Receding

Just prior to crashing to the ground.

-Skye

The Wraith’s Requiem

Thin strips of flayed flesh String the bow.

Time is always conducting us in and out of measure.

The ghost of my own making holds fast to darkness

Though, I let go so long ago

Learning to play for no one with fingers once broken

Beautiful terrible music unleashed into the world for me for me

for you.

-Skye

Requiem by Burak Ulker

Photograph Title: Striptease club, Tokyo, 1951. Photographer:  Werner Bischof

Striptease Club, Tokyo ‘51

Painted faces and smooth skin Lounging among dressing room clutter Channeling palace concubines For the average man

Emerging from feudalism

Tokyo girls All bouncing breasts and Swaying hips Take the stage.

-Skye

Photograph Title: “Angel of Death” Sculpture of a Funeral Gondola, Venice 1951 Photographer: Paolo Monti

Gondola

May the angel go before you and clear the way

I will ride with you but only to San Michele

Gliding by Our favorite haunts The rainy doorway where we met Our favorite espresso The hat shop where you bought me that Fantastical hat

My memories, My loud weeping My love so still in your box

During our last gondola ride.

-Skye

Source: thewitchywench

Cat in a Hat

On Brighton beach Where I often went Walking I came upon a Little black cat Sporting a top hat Looking out at sea

I watched this little soul So jauntily dressed For a water side stroll First in wonder Then in distress

Just where was His waistcoat and tie?

-Skye

Source: magnificent-winged-beast

Nyx

Look at you carrying around night in jar Daughter of Chaos

Empty your vessel as the sun retreats And let me sleep under the liquid deep

Endless Ocean Of universe Sprinkled With stars.

-Skye

Photo Credit: Crowd By Misha Gordin Source: Fallowstore

One of the Crowd

Hauling One rough beam after another Head down Looking neither Right Or Left

Hearing the scrape of worn shoes Hearing the effort in ragged breath

But seeing nothing

Moving together Compliant Silent Complicit

Building a pyre To end the world.