Song of the Lover
I
He saved her from the sea
and was almost drowned to bring her in
risking all to spare her
but there beside him on the shore she failed
no matter how he tried
to force from her the salt tide lingering
He suffered her to fade
her body laid and wrapped in the clay ground
With prayers and hymns each friend
pledged beside him to bear his grief as well
in days ahead—but no
his heart betrayed a rupture a slight tear
He felt it on the road
or inside sitting with a storm tide rising
And down in darkest sleep
peace caught hold of him in pale death
Yet came again this dream
of great blue whales sounding in the deep
and up from them she swam
reaching out for his hand as he awoke
startled breathless in bed
his heart clamoring like a broken wheel
~~
One night he dreamed he held
his breath and so could swim straight down to her
Wrapping her arms round him
she fully kissed and gave to him her breath
then rose upward kicking
tumbling with him onto his moonlit bed
but there began to fade
again beside him upon the swaddled sheet
Then all his salt burst out
and his heart tore once more in that hard storm
II
A year or two had gone
with friends troubled to find him off alone
trudging the stony shores
but then a woman seeing him so ingrown
resolved to hire him on
to tend her orchard with a mute troth
may it blossom and fruit
that in wedlock their life might be renewed
and so it was one spring
his torn and bitter heart grew willing
~~
His vinegar blood softened
year by year in apple-sweet children
yet life ebbed out of him
till he sat light-headed when his friends came
to catch him up on chores
and share with him the village goings-on
Day by day he weakened
and no one knew a thing to turn his tide
but drifting one clear night
out from a small cluster of stars he’d known
from youth as the Pleiades
her perfect body he saw floating in upon
his old imperfect heart
saw her hand dip between his ribs and there
give a touch to him
without so much as mending what was torn
And so his heart found ease
gaining its own off-beat gait from then
Next day with hope renewed
he propped upright and took deep breaths in bed
and a hum built within
till his chest trembled and he burst out singing
His children crowded round
drawn to the high quaver of his song
how wondrous his weak heart
filling them with fond hopes for him now
So here their voices joined
and learned his lyric quaver as they sang
weaving harmonies in
behind him rounding to a great crescendo
~~
One evening his friends came
on news they weren’t sure what to make of
thinking it some joke
but there they stood dumbfounded at the door
hearing his high quaver
with all his children rounding in harmony
And they carried him off
down the road upon their several shoulders
to celebrate his voice
with villagers who’d known in him such loss
As he sang above them
song upon song into the dusk they cheered
but his wife and children
saw him vanish in a night ill-starred …
And it was late too late
to stay the shock of his cold body’s return
heavy in his friends’ arms
his instrument so fragile – now broken
~~
A huge stone in that house
none could break to bury beside him
Winter upon winter
a pounding down of heart-blood storms dissolved it
And then light rain came in
rinsing those dark branches in the orchard
making way for blossoms
till at last the youngest child burst out high
like a wild canary
with only this to bring them all in
singing through their tears
bearing their father’s torn-heart quaver once more
and on through their days
urging their children to their own harmonies
redoubled again
banking off the hills and over the seas
on the tides’ dark reaches
where blue whales in deep fathoms down still sound
and out toward the Pleiades
where stars are born and die all unknown
– Eugene Marckx, 3 October 2014, 20 April 2015, 18 July 2016 (eugenemarckx@hotmail.com)