Eyelids

The stanzas are written as haikus with the usual syllable count of 5, 7, 5. I've introduced rhyme in the third line of each stanza to bind the poem together.

   A sort of hunched-up winter contra-version of this poem is "Impromptu," written in February 1980 and posted here on 26 January 2012.

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But by God you’ve lived!
Late June, the afternoon sun’s
Intense, the wind strong,

The sea’s a’broil with
Plasma of leaping flash-flakes,
Flinging heat that shone

Glarely on suede sand
And hot-stoned shingle. The gulls
Crouched, panting, weighed by

The sky’s vaulted tons,
Lapis-blue, peremptory.
Lips and tongue are spry

With ozone-souse, flung
By the in-roaring waves, thumped
By wind’s fisted blast.

An hour’s prom walk is
Enough, threading the basted
Bodies, thin or vast,

Crisping in sun, all
Angst-work annulled in heat-trance.
Wake up! There’s self’s thrill

In this mêle of air’s
Primary dazzle, frank to
Enthuse the poised will.

Later, returned home,
An iced drink misting its glass,
Eyelids sting, cheeks throb,

Livened by sun’s, wind’s
Afterburn. Back! Go back, where
The sea shouts, gulls mob!

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© August 2022