Ivory Peonies

Somewhere in the dark corners of my mind

The places we go to hide

I wish I were four and still a child

You say grow up, be a little more mild

 

I never asked you to stay and wait

In fact I think I warned you I’d be late

Flowers only bloom in the spring you see

And it’s been winter for eternity

 

Explains the cold shroud around my heart

And you thought i was just playing tart

No babe, but dessert sure is sweet

Yet haven’t you learned that I ain’t

 

I made you a pie, you baked me a cake

We spent that whole winter down by the lake

Trying to fix, to forgive, to forget

Strangers out of season, frozen with regret

 

I told you I did, I warned you I would

Get bored with gardening in the cold wood

He thawed my ivory peonies one magical night

Now from you I run with fright

 

Back to the comfort corner of my mind

Very safe place to go and hide

I’ll pretend I’m four, a prodigious child

I can’t hear your screams, your call of the wild

 

Some say a cold-water death can be euphoric

For your sins, I know you will burn for it

You and your dreams, now locked in a hard cell

I hope I haunt them from my cold watery hell

Change

“It’s coming.” Said you

 

“What’s that?” Said i

 

“Change.” Said you

 

“Change? Change has come and gone and come again. It’s the only constant. You’ve been busy. Haven’t noticed.” Said i

 

“But I’m afraid of change.” Said you

 

“The hardest part is waiting. With change you skip-the-line. It’s a VIP pass straight to the ride.” Said i

 

 

 

With desperation you looked at me

I could see adequate fascination in your deep blue eyes

You questioned my actions

An intensity only you could deliver.

 

Remember the only constant in time is change

and only change is constant

I warned

 

Trying desperately to make you understand

the future is not something I can tell

nor do I know if I can give

what you want

if I only knew what it was

 

And if I did know these answers would I relinquish them so willing?

 

So time lingered

as predicted

adequacy became waning

as I warned

 

Parting company was easy, no hard feelings

except for a slight loneliness we had both dealt with before

with others we cared only too little about

 

It’s too bad we felt this way

for we too

remain constant

as changes always do