Poetry 5

SHORT POEMS

By Philip Cairns

I can’t shake your words.

They’ve been eating away inside of me,

Like molten lava.

I need to wash away these blues.

I may only write about the colour yellow

For the rest of my life.

What does it really matter,

One way or the other?

I’m hearing the sound of the ocean in Hawaii,

Warm and soothing,

Though I’m surrounded by dirty snow and bitter cold.

Do you blame me?

You are short and sweet and very sexy,

But you need to take care of yourself a bit more.

You enter my life like a split second ghost.

It’s a necessary thing.

Crystals and lovely trinkets hang from my kitchen window.

All the colours of the rainbow,

Or so it seems.

They put a tiny smile on my sour face.

It makes me irritable to walk outside when it rains,

All cold and sopping wet.

Best to hear it on a CD bought at a record store.

Turn it up to a reasonable volume and relax.

I like to watch children open their presents.

The delight on their faces is an infectious thing.

Would you like to be a child, once more?

Not for me, thanks.

Don’t know much about the life of Mahler.

His music can make you weep or feel wistful.

I wonder what goes on in the mind of a composer when he or she writes.

Their own little private concert.

Vanessa Redgrave was celibate for more than a decade.

That’s not my idea of a good time.

I hope she was happy.

Her artistry is as tall as the Eiffel Tower.

Gotta snap out of it.

Must return to the living.

Mercury Retrograde is a challenging place to be.

Three weeks of misunderstandings, 4 times a year.

Purple is an amazing colour.

It vibrates at a high frequency.

Spiritual and soft and almost a whisper.

It washes over me like a Tsunami.