From the Other Side of a Dark Summer
From the Other Side of a Dark Summer
Let us toast, my friends, to health
For that dark summer was not creative
And full, as that long past year in Sarnia
The success, on which we base all others
Before the active years of womb
And womanhood
Aged my world, and highlighted youth’s dream
We rushed for dusk and stretched nights long
To surrender, only at light
And live the required face
For required hours, for required pay
In required paper-shifting industries
Last summer
I tried to live as we had lived
In a country cottage with a beautiful young boy
With trips into the meadows
And strolls in the cities
Of Bath, Salisbury, Cardiff
Cream teas on the river Avon
With long nights prior
Caffeine-laced and begging for midnight
To bring with it politics and Celtic silhouettes
And the scent of the sea and coastal breeze
And excited plans of two
Intellectual soul mates, found
(And this very winter, lost)
Let us toast, my friends, to health
For that cottage was a place
Of insanity
Humanity at its uncut depths no art could paint without
A censored report
I tried, I tried
Alone and in the sunshine
Surrounded by the beauties
Of river and architecture
No longer locking out the ugly world but
Locking in my self, bound toward the rail station
For another
Summer adventure
In English utopia
Let us toast, my friends, to health
For a calmed mind is what is needed now
And one which chooses day
Over night, or at least, chooses
And to company
Who keep the shadows not only out of childhood beds
But out of minds which beg to twist reality
Into monstrous hellish shapes
And let the false and true invade without reaction
That piece by piece destroy all order
Let us toast, my friends, to health