July 2017
David Chorlton
DavidChorlton@centurylink.net
DavidChorlton@centurylink.net
I am a transplanted European, who has lived in Phoenix since 1978. My poems have appeared in many publications online and in print, and reflect my affection for the natural world, as well as occasional bewilderment at aspects of human behavior. My newest collection of poems is Bird on a Wire from Presa Press, and late in 2017 The Bitter Oleander Press will publish Shatter the Bell in my Ear, my translations of poems by Austrian poet Christine Lavant. http://www.davidchorlton.mysite.com
Nostalghia
I
A spiderweb lay cradled in a sunbeam
inside the house where,
long ago, the tables
had been set with flowers
and lace curtains
filtered slow dripping time.
II
Bending over a wide metal bowl
in a room cut from silence
and wood, a woman
with a sorceress’ hands
ran them through her hair
which became
like the grass
that won’t let go of a stream.
III
There was a shock
so profound that no one dared
enter the site where the air
had a coating of rust, and the mist
rose daily
where a dog
still faithful to the world
came to sit with one ear cocked
to listen for the only bird
still calling.
IV
Bushes floated on water
without so much as a leaf out of focus
and the Earth
was a mirror
waiting to crack.
V
It might have been the last
tree in the world
planted where the land gives way
to water,
and a stranger who cared
came to it each day to record
the way it clung to its life with a claw
in the clouds.
VI
Memory became the light that burns
first the edges from walls
and then the bricks
they’re made of, leaving just
nostalgia
flickering where
the flame expires.
©2017 David Chorlton
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