Delilah Ferne O'Haynes' first book, an artistic collaboration of poetry and photography, has been nominated for the Appalachian Book of the Year award.
One Moon
A white moon guides two figures
along the shore below my balcony.
Silver ripples roll over their feet
and pelicans ride a warm breeze
over shimmering water.
Another moon, another year,
we strolled along this beach.
Sand crabs scurried past our feet,
mating in moonlit waves as if
there would be no more moons.
One moon shines for all lovers,
a cratered orb that dips itself
into the ocean's corner,
sculpting for two people-
as they move hand in hand
holding all possibility-
one silver-lit moment.
Our moon shone so large in the heavens,
I could have reached out across
the waves to hold its face in my hands.
White foam washes the shore,
rhythmically lapping sand,
swirling around the feet
of the pair below.
I watch the lovers melt
together into distant darkness.
Waves erase their footprints.
************
Undone
I stand naked
in the shower
holding long hunks
of curly red life
in my hands,
water running
through it,
like blood.
It goes out
in the trash.
I don a wig,
like a bandage
for a gaping wound;
not even stitches
could stop
this bleeding.
Will I go the way
of my old
doll, Betsy-
her hair, eyelashes
yanked out
by a vengeful cousin,
her clothes lost-
now buried
in the cedar chest?
************
Dog days
Want of you
will come
as surely
as dawn
Sweet longing
for
skin on skin,
thigh on thigh
Warmth of you
flows
from brain
to loin-
a welcomed flood,
rousing me
I spread
my body
between cool sheets,
reach for you,
only to feel
the empty place
where we never loved
---Clink on this link for more poems by Delilah O'Haynes: http://artsmagazine.info/admin/articleView.php?id=2007042421574568182
