Lost

the melancholy whisper of sparrows’ wings
distracts me from
sunshine on bare feet and
leaning over wooden decks

your hair is waving like flags on a windy afternoon
at the carnival, red and white popcorn stands
decked out in pink cotton candy and rainbow lollipops
hearing “can you make it purple?” and “I want that!”

the sky is dark with the flight of a thousand birds

you remember the icy winter nights in city penthouses
the black of a thunderstorm in the middle of nowhere
the forbidding candles in the window of a haunted house

while I am stuck in
summer mornings at the pool
picnic evenings in fields of sherbet
watching the opening and closing of butterflies’ wings
classy black splendor with splashes of amber

I am submerged in rusty oranges,
finding no way to get back to the blue.

© Priya Ganesan, May 2009

(Poetry Friday roundup here.)