Where is the beauty

Where is the beauty

I used to know

Hiding in bright things

Lingering in lazy sunsets

The murmur of Starlings

Chasing through red fingers

Stretched wide

Over the vast eternal

A warm wind gentle

On my face

Fresh with the smell

Of lavender

The whisper of stories

Told in exotic tongues

Over dark coffee

In crowded bazaar’s

Titillating my taste buds

The memory

Of seduction over dinner

As a full moon

Pregnant with promise

Dips its swollen belly

Into a yielding sea

Bowing to the welcome of tomorrow

A glowing orb

Shimmering

In the steam rising

From a pot

Of Jasmine tea

A late supper

An early breakfast

Where is the beauty

I used to know

In the kiss

Of falling rain

The sharp sting

In the bite of a winter’s morn

When a bleary sun

Limps into dawn

Barely brightening

A stonewashed sky

Heavy with the weight

Of a new day

Beauty disappears

In the blink of an ungladdened eye

The tired thud

Of a leaden heart

The tightening of a screw

The lick of a flame

The words I use

To capture the scene

Are such a disappointment.