Kamstra, Bauke

Bauke Kamstra

Ah her beauty
swallows my mouth

brings its sea taste
of iron
& salt

blood beats waves
all the way
to my head.

a bird hopping
from pine to spruce

keeping pace

telling me
stories

selling dreams of
flight.

High up
& clinging

to ropes

wishing I'd
the bones

of a bird.

❊

High above
the bowl of salt

that was once
a lake

the small shadow
of a hawk.

❊

Storm puts its knees
on the field
laying down grain

an unwelcome lover.

She was out
collecting tin
to put in her assorted bags

& looked at me
with my own eyes.

❊

Poetry dispels the illusion of separateness

     when we touch
     when we are touched

we are no longer alone.

  ❊

Sometimes ghosts come as crows
re-scavenging the same crusts
all over again

a futility of need.

In the city
the dark broken by
lighted streets

eating stars

except those few
I've saved for you.

❊

You begin to dream
those dreams

then winter comes
all intimate with snow.

❊

The wind chanting
slow circles
about my grief

mistaking tears for rain.

A flute made
from the arm of a man

chased & bound with silver

each note a year
of his life
played out.

❧

Carry me down
that sweet incline
to desire

my nerves
remember you well

& ache
to be touched.

❧

Were it winter now
you could track me
through the snow

I prefer the anonymity
of grass.

I am not practical enough
for ordinary life

my feet leave the ground

in my gardens
are no potatoes

only flowers grow.

My Shirt
blowing down the road
arms waving impulsively.

❧

When I can go no further

when even my dreams
lay down

there is still you.

❧

I can speak your name
like cherries on the tongue

& still I do not know you.

The inverted sky is white
with black crows
the sprinkled stars.

❧

It is always too late to go back

ghosts take over
as soon as we leave.

Old photos
smiles fixed
drowned faces

caught
in the sargasso
of memories.

❧

If you can't be
purely free
(we are slaves
to something)

be a mystery
(ask the moon).