April Rag Girl
by Kelly Anne
2007

 Approach the thawing field with care
The April rag girl wanders there
The broken husks are bent with sighs
From all her lonely, sad goodbyes
Her ragged clothing speaks of grace—
Of silk, neglected; shredded lace

 Her eyes will say that hope is gone
Her face is placid, pale, and drawn
Her dress, once dainty, that she wears
Unravels from its thousand tears.
Yet still she rises, from the earth
To watch each morning’s golden birth

 Her garments hide the wounds beneath
To serve as though a healing sheath
And while she wants to heart to heal
With Fate, it seems, she’s struck a deal:
Each thread, each fiber of her soul—
They must be rent to leave her whole.

 With shaking fingers, cracked and cold
She pulls undone each strand and fold.
The April rag girl rends the seams
That once had held her hopeful dreams
But as the threads by wind are tossed—
The meaning of her soul is lost.

 She speaks no words; her words took wing
They flew away one early spring
Perhaps as coming years unfurl
Away will blow this April girl
Her tattered life collapsed at last
A mem’ry woven in the past.

This is the last five stanzas of Roses And Rue by Oscar Wilde.  Quite unbelivably moving, in my personal opinion.  And that last stanza?  What could be more true.

...On your hand as it waved adieu
There were veins of blue;
In your voice as it said good-bye
Was a petulant cry,

'You have only wasted your life.'
(Ah, that was the knife!)
When I rushed through the garden gate
It was all too late.

Could we live it over again,
Were it worth the pain,
Could the passionate past that is fled
Call back its dead!

Well, if my heart must break,
Dear love, for your sake,
It will break in music, I know,
Poets' hearts break so.

But strange that I was not told
That the brain can hold
In a tiny ivory cell
God's heaven and hell.

~

Sunsets Gone

By Kelly Anne

2007

Some lights have burned too brightly to go on

They gave their all to save a soul, and then

They’re but a pool of wax; a broken pawn

Who did their duty; now, to die is Zen.

Some lives are lived to fully to endure

Each ounce of blood is given to mankind

For such fatigue, there is indeed no cure

Yet, more than elegies are left behind.

Some hearts have felt too deeply to survive

They’ve fought for love until they cannot stand

As seasons pass, they cease to be alive

The toll of feeling held a high demand.

Some days are found too lovely, for to last

The ones that sing of hope right from the dawn

But dwindle, weary, from the hours past

Their beauty fades; and soon, the sunset's gone.

Pathways

By Kelly Anne

4-6-07

I saw you coming, down the way

But gave not rise to fear, dismay

“A moment only will it last—

And then this meeting will be past.”

Where paths converged, you passed me by

And looked directly in my eye

You held the gaze an instant more

Than any other time before

“Hello!” I said; you held your peace

I can suppose there’s no release

In saying just a word or two

—The end once came for me and you.

It came, it went; the wind is cold

But better die when young than old

And this same wind that brought the pain

Blew shut the door; brought cleansing rain

I only wish that when we met

We both had looked like we forget

And acting now as if old friends

Who have no need to make amends

For after all, our tale is through—

—The end once came for me and you.

"I think, therefore I'm single."
(Saw that on a bumpersticker today...bravo.)