Juxtaposition

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

Song of Solomon 2:11

Celebrating sunshine today after a cold stretch of rain-rain-rain,

meaning it will be days before we can do more than think about planting!

We live twixt After and Before

Today hinged between Future-Past

Where none return to touch once more

A moment when its ilk is cast

Surrender is a tender sword

How hard the soft slip of time twists

Hellos into heart-banners blurred

Like landscapes swathed in summer mists

And we, subjects of creature-choice

Have no choice but to bear the tide

That courses though us without voice

And leaves us on the other side

(Last two stanzas optional)

…of Nevermore where days of yore

With constant replenishment keep

Our senses keened to where Before

Turns into After while we sleep

Futile to beguile Master Clock

Or fret for fragments scattered where

The aftermath of tick and tock

Drifts through thought-scapes of painted stare

© Janet Martin