"Poe-Heart-ry": The Long and the Short
By Mia Wang
Copyright 2011 Mia Wang
THE BENCH
Who wouldn't fancy
A bench inscribed with their name
Or getting some heroic recognition of sorts
Some object to mark
A glorious and wonderful life you've led
A silent eulogy
An eternal one at that
For as long as this bench rests on its four legs
On the soft muddy patch
There it scribed "Abercromby".
Mister, Sir, Monsieur Abercromby
Your picture is neither hanging off a wall
Nor immortalised in some cheap metal
Where everyone stands and gapes in awe
Your countless, precious contributions
Are encased in only a bench
Under the cooling shade of the Royal Palms
With an occasional stench
This Mister Abercromby
Was he a sniveling baby
Just like you or me?
Did he talk about the sun and the sand
Would he have been a big football fan?
Could he be the beggar on the street
Frantically looking around for something to eat?
Was he your neighbour next door
Who walks and talks like a boor?
Pardon my insolent tongue
You do not have to win the Nobel
For Peace, Physics or in Law
For in each of everybody's hearts
Has that special someone's name
Deeply imprinted all the same
Nedlands, 2004
The pretense shadowed by forced smiles
Nonchalance masked behind a cold, harsh voice
The melancholy remains cached
Behind those oak brown eyes
The answers lay
Unseen.
Unearthed.
In the labyrinth of her mind
She stops short.
Jaded, she sinks.
Ephemeral joys waste away her soul
Wearing away all hopes for salvation
Clouding her fleeting thoughts
You toasted to my mortal happiness
with the Cup laced with poison
Whisk me away up into the tangerine sky
Like a fallen angel
Immortalise me in your pain
Anyway.
Anyway, she says.
Murdoch, 2005
The strings play
The eyes move
The fingers strum
The guitar remains in its peaceful lull
His movements across the strings are like my lips
against yours
Like the rhumba he plays
Soft and hard, quick and slow
The music of the heart
Plays only in your ears and mine
Then comes the allegria
Like a thunderstorm on a stormy night
Your tears strike me like lightning flashes
Right down to my gut
The hurt echoing like waves
Dispersing into the dark green sea
Away was the lull we used to share
Away were the sounds of the strumming guitar
The flamenco guitarist picks up his hat
Bowed down and left.
Melbourne, 2004
Clamp me in with a turn of your key
You reek of insanity
The honest look through your glassy eyes
Crossed within the boundaries of the soul
The puppets of your words come alive
Prancing around without strings
Your hands knotted and tangled up
Beneath the calm
I smell fear
Resentment resides
Exchange seats
Like a game of musical chairs
Take my place and I’ll take yours
Change only begins with the end of our tune.
Melbourne, 2004
You scream deja vu
Again and again
The trees bellow their secrets
Push me to the edge of this cliff
I elevate
Fall into me
You accuse me
Again and again.
Deja vu.
Perth, 2003
Like a double edged sword
You split me in two
And then into you
King of Darkness
The rain pelts down like stones
I leave you shivering in the cold
Periphering the borders of our sanity
You fall out of line
Lie and roll in your treachery
Blinded.
Barred.
Desire.
The web of deceit is spun
Like a helpless prey
Tangled.
Unfazed.
Fear.
You drown in the cantation of your pleas
And hopes of salvation
Burn on the stake
Impaled against the cirrus flecked primrose sky
The wisps of smothered smoke
Drawn with the evening wind
Without a trace.
Without a sign.
Leederville, 2004
Two hearts enshrouded in the mist
I can't seem to find my soul
Deep into the open sea
Like a pebble I sink
Beneath the ripples of insanity
You crush me like a tidal wave
You prick me relentlessly on my Achilles' heel
Pain has given me the answer that I seek
You float above the darkness
Under the moonlight i write my plea
For a death row pardon
That only you and I can see
The cold blasting wind against my cheeks
Misty winter sky
Its grey marauding blanket
Engulfs me with its outstretched arms
And rocks me to sleep
Like a baby in its mother's bosom
Live or Die, Heaven or Hell
In my parallel universe I entrap myself
In your tenderness, beguiled, my soul I sell
I lay awake with my eyes closed
I sing a song I know
Touch me with a feather of a phoenix
See me rise above the cinder and ash
Soft and sullen
I slip
Away into the stars and the midnight aurora sky
Perth, 2004
In memory of a lost love
I took a walk down the path we used to walk
Hand in hand
Lay myself down on the bed
Where we used to twiddle our pinkies
And listened to that band
I talk to your shadow
And breathe your scent
Come what may
I say
Our hearts will find the hidden way
Back to where the promises unearth themselves again
And rise from the dead
Where only you will hold the key
To bring me back
And set us free.
Melbourne, 2004
I saw another shadow beside you
Beneath the stars
Your silhouette against the wall
Your face beat
Your heart forsaken
I reach out to touch you
Yet I can't hear you breathe
Slip into the nightgown of the sky
As its silky coat hangs over my shoulders
Like wind you came and went
Through the Milky Way
I’ll extend my wings and soar
Like I never did before
I promise I'll catch you when you fall
Touchdown.
Perth, 2004
Spin me around like a top
Like you please
The echoes of pain
Constantly numb my brain
The unbearable weight on my shoulders
Wear me down like an anvil
Chained to my ankles
Tell me a story
Make me believe in make-believe
In the darkness, answers you will find
I am your salvation
You are my muse
I walk around in circles
In this palimpsest of mixed emotions
This eternal damnation of my folly
Perth, 2004
The rain pelts
Queen of pain I await
You opened Pandora’s Box
Fingers sliding across the locks
Your fiery eyes
On the loose
I break free from this sanctuary
Like a river I flow into the sea
On a rock I try to float
The dry and speckled sand
Like a flying strip
You call out to me
Come here and land.
I come to an abrupt halt
I falter and fall.
The rain pelts.
Perth, 2005
Muddled up in a million thoughts
Overflowing with confusion
In a frenzied state
He galloped
Sweeping past the night
Adrenalin pumping
Heated blood boiling
The wilderness jeers at him
The leaves gasp
And the branches cackle
His long soft mane of snow
Yellowed under the moonlight glow
His melancholic wails echoed through the forest of Nowhere
As he stood by the shimmering lake
And cried a tear of Silver
Orion the Hunter nodded with sympathy
As the Southern Star showed him the way
He picked up his pace
Through the trees
Hiding away from the nocturnal sky
For he should never be seen
Only to be buried under scorn
the unicorn without his horn.
Perth, 2004
My mind's a whirl
In your psychedelic realm
As I lose myself
In your spinning world
I grow dizzy
As the crystals permeate through my veins
I become vulnerable
Limp and fallen I lie
Jaded and broken I cry
You slip like sand through my fingers
As I try in vain
To hold on to every grain
Leederville, 2005
I’m a vendor of my secrets
I set up my stall along the rubble of emotions
A flicker of your past
A love reunited
Igniting the long lost sparks of before
I sit alone
Left in awe
Perth, 2004
It's the same tune again
Like an old broken record you play
The same lies
The same accusations
Oh, how time flies
The same look on your face
The same cries not to leave
Couldn't take a faster pace
Hauntings of my past
Bewitched as I fall
Like the posters of you
Plastered against the walls
Perth, 2004
So many perfect nights
In an imperfect world
You drive me wild
Yet keep me sane
We'll hold hands and dream apart
And meet again in our parallel universe
You're the Queen of my heart
Perth, 2005
# The End#
Mia is in constant need of inspiration, in search of some respite from this crazy world and on the lookout for more adventures. Adventures of life that is.
In her parallel universe, she spends every day with a notebook and a cup of tea, thinking and writing about nothing at all.
Feel free to send your thoughts, ideas or any questions at all to
[email protected].