Page 22 - Contrast1988Spring
P. 22
Solace
A slash pine twists in the splintered wind,
heartwood creaking
like an old woman's rocker after rain.
This pine knows loneliness,
Clutching the side of its weeded dune,
shallow roots gnarled liker a hand frozen in agony,
gouging deep
into the Shifting sand.
The stranded jellyfish, .
a formless glob on a bed of shattered shells and gnt,
the coagulated broth of stilled tentacles
sprawling out like rays from a child's sun,
seeking the salt-foamy lip of the ocean
--to no avail.
it too knows the loneliness,
psarolvdadteiodn,by passersby who offer curious fear, but no
till life sizzles away
on a furnace of sand.
I remember searching my lover's eyes
for a flicker of falsehood
when she first spoke her heart.
Finding none, we fell into each other,
only to have passion vanish
like a lantern fading on its final vapor,
leaving me to seek solace
elsewhere.
To no avail.
Jonathan Slade
18
Contrast Spring 1988
