Love in the Time of Corona

Writing love in the time of corona to forget her

When tall grass on the banks waves in the breeze,

Mourning doves flock over the bridge arch,

And cool rapids splash river boulders midstream,  

With enough percolation to defer any dreams

 

What good would it do to figure her out?

When under-span waterfall echoes reverb,

Drowning traffic noise tightening river belts

Around an odorless anchorage of evaporated urine

With enough older love to fasten my heart 

 

Not going to go where only her hormones know

With enough gnats to nourish swallows and bats

Through Taichung’s veins of throbbing blood 

As native girls smile at this alien male

With enough testosterone to make it move

 

When her thermals low-bridge my levitation

I swoop rhythmically like an egret’s wings

Through saturated skies on mountains amassed

The thunder that ripped through the love I found

Withstanding rain sheltering me from her pain

 

Her fascinating adornments melt like eye shadow

Resembling tears of misgivings in the spooky night

As she acquiesces in the fight against dependency  

I have already retreated to where she will not know me

On the shady riverside watching younger men fish  

 

June 17, 2020

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It is not good enough that the days rush by

It is not good enough that the days rush by,

Filling each void to keep busy,

Passing the days to draw you nearer.

What I want is you here with me now,

To feel the dream becoming real,

Out of my head and into the night,

With music’s swell enveloping us.

The dance of serendipity moving within.  

It is not good enough

For the time to fly

When it can burst through the speed of light

Into flames hard to contain,

Smoldering upon reaching your lips.

When time together slips through our hands,

Better to dream about you within every distraction,

See your smile in everything,

The ripeness of your eyes,

Your adorable glance of disbelief,

Tightening our coil until its release.

Nothing could be the same

After you whisper my name,

After we kiss and draw each other near;

That is what I fear.

June 8, 2020

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If blowing a kiss is still a kiss

If blowing a kiss is still a kiss

I have kissed your smiling face

That look in your eyes feels like bliss

Your lips give my dreams grace

You are more than a woman to me

More than a breath of morning dew

In tandem we go, riding the river

Two of us randomly making it through

Ever higher till the heights we reach

Responding to undeniable passion

Going forward towards our love

Offered weekly in two-hour rations

Avoiding the rain and the burning sun

We are clearly Goldilocks’ choice

Unbearably waiting for tomorrow’s meeting

I’m tuned in to your voice

Unable to forget you when at home

Without a lover left

Happiness you bring makes me want to sing

After you, only old age and death

So I see you when you find the time

Arrange my days to fit your style

Who am I to ask for more 

Than to know you for a little while

Let the torrents crash below us

On the bridge to the tunnel of love

As plum rains mist to summer storms 

We fit like velvet gloves

Forget what people say about autumn springs

We are strong enough to endure

Days brighten when we're face to face 

that is what love is for  

May 31, 2020

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Somewhere Under the Rainbow Bridge

Must I reassure her to be singing in the rain

With a glorious feeling; happy again?

What lies around the bend?

The point of no return?

Open roads off the map?

In cahoots with this dreamer

Or the nightmare of a poured out heart in repudiation?

Can I shake off this feeling of déjà vu

From long ago on a rainy Gold Mountain beach

When anyone but my first wife would do;

How I tried to woo her with encouragement

Missing kissing her as she turned away…

Will it be the scent of dried urine

Brought back from a puddle under the bridge?

When I look up to see a demon, smiling,

Waving at me mid-span,

Emptying a box of liquid into the river, 

Somewhere under the rainbow

As stray dogs' menacing barks echo;

The harbinger of disappointment …

But wait!

The pack is safely on the other shore!

With a stream so defined and direct between us

From a love to a lover, which is more?

What pleasures other than love can endure?

Game for the great exchange

Come rain or come shine

With shelter in a storm

Or rhapsody in the rain. 

May 18, 2020 
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My 28th Anniversary Sonnet

The river rushes overgrown with moisture undertow;

Birds don’t dare to fly in there,
A canopy so free winds wayward overblown;

Butterflies strain, lizards stare.

Mountains fall, both big and small;

Dusted leaves caked with debris rust my true eyes tearfully,
Through hidden skies appalled;

All that’s born and greets the dawn dies eventually.

It is not for me to witness thee or dare to ask at all;

Observe, recline, wake and dine never with a doubt,
I am only here to love you, dear, and stand until I fall;

What cannot change me anywhere without,

Crash and burn from marathon miles, not my fashion style,

I live to see the river shores from both sides of your smile.

April 7, 2019
edited June 30, 2019

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Copyright © 2019 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved.