Soft Flesh

You were ..soft flesh
Your body smooth with youth
But not with calm...

Opening that door..your life ahead... impossible
Appearing as an Everest you could not climb
The slippery slopes too steep for you
Could only bring a sliding down
.. the crevices a threat
And worst..it seemed so boring to begin
Day after day routine..

You wanted life’s big picture ..not the banal
But how to start ?
Around that area of heart..
You felt a burning like a candle never going out.

When time began for you
It was a slate grey city full of shame
Deceitful place
Crammed full of tight lipped Priests
And floating nuns in mysteries
And rain that never ceased
And cold within the house
Veiled curtains everywhere
Golashes on the feet
It just got worse with years of adding on.

Odd corners of the world...you came and went.
And in much tedium you lost your soul
..it was a withering ..a rented life.
Some were there but were not near...
..the would be and the damned
Leaves of the seasons grew
..and fell, tree after tree
In your Lost Paradise.

The years went up and down
And came and went
And here you are, old flesh
And body etched by age and you are calm.

When living tore at you....you held yourself together
Made it to a life that is your own...a sort of miracle
That came from the unknown
I’m toasting that.

Kristine Byrne 9th May. 2013