Poem page eleven
Dancer in Green
On a stool by a window
In a tower by a tree
See a gray man
Who looks like me.
Follow his gaze deeply to the green,
He searches for her face in the shadow of the leaves.
If he keeps a distance between you
And looks to the floor,
Remember he has a story to share.
Hear him speak in a whisper,
Of a pain ever near.
He brushed by his muse again today.
Well-met, eye to eye, in a too-small space
Passing so close as to touch.
In a breath of wonderment, he thought
You are still more beauty than anything.
But whilst he yeilds a way for her
He recalls his well-hidden sorrow.
His loss etched another line upon his brow.
Each tear when fallen
And each sigh - it leaves its sign.
He remembers that once he believed her smile
And once she touched his soul,
But now find a man still tortured
See the blood that stains a life.
The dancer still dances in the gloss on the green
But the gray man slowly dies
Though he seeks no more battles -
It`s better not to try.
He receives wounds from distant strangers,
In the stillness and the night.
Though the blades are twisted -
He will no longer fight.
He ponders for an answer deep behind his gaze
Where he will bleed forever slowly,
Still relive all kinds of pain
But the warrior-man is now long fled
The gray man you see is nearly dead.
A Duel of Delight and Desperation
