Places I Have Known

Gary Beaumier

Of this place

I wish to remember everything

the green out cropped islands 

left to wildness

stony ruins jutting over the thin division

of land and sky

with light diffused in gathered clouds

from a low sun

Hamlets less claimed by civilization

 the inflection of words;

and the staccato of foreign tongues

in teeming streets;

bridges trolled by the unwashed

for another coin in their cup

We still hear the music rise

to our open window in the night

to carry away our sleep

as we unravel a mournful dirge

from this lands brutal past

of you my love

I know vast tracks

I've known your taste

when need was everything

the slope of your shoulder

and the measure of your taken hand

the uptilt of your chin

just before you speak

and the topography

of your ear as you tuck a wisp of hair behind it

yet I may catch you

in an unguarded moment

after clearing dinner plates

and I can see the wine

has carried you

to archipelagos of darker thought

that are foreign to me where

I dare not take

my clumsy step.

so I touch your cheek

and then you flash a smile 

to say you've returned.