Thursday 14 January 2016

The trick of a clothes horse



There’s a full length mirror, and a clothes horse
and as I look up suddenly, it seems
someone’s standing next to me, but of course
there’s no one there. A trick of light. A dream.


There’s no-one standing here, just empty sleeves
stirring as if they’d still go around me;
it’s only a short-lived spasm of half-sleep
an image conjured by solitude, a leap
of faith and air, transient, imaginary.


It’s only an empty coat, and the one
who wore it is never going to walk in.
A throb of air and light, a reflection
behind a silvered glass. Soon the dark will thin
dispersing the solace of illusion
as if it’s nothing; nor has ever been.



8 comments:

  1. And yet it was, and is. Conjured by longing, saved in soft hopeful dreams and thoughts.

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  2. Hi Nila - that first reflective look into the mirror expecting the past vision ... but now it's the new one - and it's a new year and needs a change up (or loss of some parts of said reflective bod!). EC's comment is perfect - cheers Hilary

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    1. Hi Hilary, your comment not too far behind EC's either! :) Looking forward to the good losses the year will bring.

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  3. Memories follow us no matter what and can show up as anything.

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    1. Indeed they do. In real life they show up in the most unlikely of things

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  4. The imagining is intense here Nila. Those empty sleeves that could wrap around you is a very evocative image. We always need to be sensitive to this 'other' world that is so close to our 'real' world. Visions once seen, never forgotten. :-)

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    1. My 'other' world is constantly pushing and shoving my 'real' one... :-)

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