Of children’s laughter
this we well know:
a symphony past my window
cavorts and scatters,
sustains imagination meant to grow
especially for those who can’t see the show.
But matters it at all?
And yes I know that I don’t know
where theirs ever goes.
Yet mine batters me to fall.
But what it knows,
at least when it sails the sky,
(in waxed wings) yearns to rest then to fly,
an enticing castle below:
each to each separate challenge will tantalize.
There’s a land they say, that’s strung to the skies,
that finds a way
to make one a lithe human-kite;
lusts for edges of life.
For an exhilarating soul-save
they make their dive
dodging knights in the baileys of castle-prisons,
scooping littered treasures – after saving the maidens,
filled with artful pride,
then cast back jewels of sentiment – where they may lay then.
For dragon teeth and fire, give good pay then
to Trusty Scaffold Terence
who sways the ropes with no delay again,
an arrow dodging friend,
a friend of adherence.
He pulls us back and then,
we stampede back hearts racing.
The enemy lost, by backwoods still chasing.
Time once again
for feasting, bragging, and embracing.
And now perhaps – that parking lot – I say or sing –
is a field of rye with kites,
where Trusty Terence is cliff’s-edge pacing.
Their gleeful eyes him embracing
run to him from jewel-pelted knights.
Notes:
I wrote a lot in the notes for the first 2024 revision post and the first post period of this poem. Most of those notes can be reapplied to this post. Here I’ll just say that the first stanza is back to just how it is in the first post of the poem (with the very minor exception of “sustains” being in bold), and in the second stanza two lines are revised. Not much has been changed in the text, but a massive improvement has been made. Now I’m really happy with justice being done for the poem. If I post another revision of it it will be after 2024 is out.
Update: Scaffolds are meant to be up against a building or wall or at least near it. But the scaffold implied in the poem would be at a distance, I think, to much more safely set it up and fly those human-kites. I’m cheating here, but I don’t have a better word than “scaffold” and specifying the distance of the scaffold from the curtain wall seems a bit much.
Writings By Erick Heins 