Heavy Hand

Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow. ~ Wole Soyinka 


Sunset honey spoons the horizon
with summer memories in those
tiny moments before ebony snatches smiles.

I watch the keeper of secrets unfold her cloak
in the breath between comfort and haunting.

Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow.
I haven’t a knife to cut light into the fingerprints
you leave upon my dreams.

I have no animosity for the moon or stars.
They sing of forgetting, but your murky palm
pushes me deeper into a river of pain.

Scissor me from this play of fright that steals rest.
Night, I beg….Please come without a burden.


 ©Susie Clevenger 2015
  

Comments

Grace said…
I love that we got inspired by the opening line of Night ~ I felt the darkness of Night's murky palm into the river of pain ~ The ending line is perfect, Please come without a burden ~ Don't we all wish for this soothing rest ~

Thanks for linking up with Sunday's Challenge Susie ~ Wishing you happy week ahead ~
C.C. said…
Susie, this is the line that spoke to me as well...but what YOU have done with it is beyond anything I could have imagined....so exquisite in the depth of emotion you evoke here. Absolutely stunning. The imagery is so rich with vivd emotion--ebony snatching smiles and fingerprints on dreams...just wow, wow, wow.
Jim said…
Susie, this is so very well written. I love how your poem fits right into Soyinka's last, "Night, I beg, ... come."
..
Anonymous said…
From those beautiful first three lines to the ending this is exquisite
Outlawyer said…
The end of day can bring a heaviness--separate from dreams--your poem expresses that so vividly, Susie--and glad to see I'm not the only one who feels it--thanks. k. (Manicddaily)
brudberg said…
The last line - a prayer for a lightness and the bliss of real rest . There is something so inspired yet so different in your words. Wonderful.
Anonymous said…
Nice job on a song in Solyinka's style, personifying Night and then making an intimate relationship with it, lover to beloved, with all the happiness and angst and desire mixed in. The spouse of a long marriage, wed since the first night fell upon us. His spell, his thrall is ours!
Kerry O'Connor said…
Wow! This is amazing writing, Susie. Your imagery is finely-wrought and the emotion palpable.

I haven’t a knife to cut light into the fingerprints
you leave upon my dreams.

(Double Wow!)
Anonymous said…
Really beautiful, without animosity for the moon or stars!
Hannah said…
So many facets of the dark and night expressed creatively here, Susie...

I love especially this line, "I watch the keeper of secrets unfold her cloak in the breath between comfort and haunting."

Well done!
Anonymous said…
Love how you've describe the night. Haunting and beautiful.
Night that can steal rest through fright and as the keeper of secrets that haunts rather than comforts- powerful after your light and lovely opening image.
Gail said…
sometimes reading takes my breath away...this was one of those times.