Today’s poem has not appeared on this blog before and is here today especially for ‘Sam’ with whom I got chatting in a cafe just before Christmas, and whose (closet) soldier boyfriend is currently serving in Afghanistan.
The poem is dedicated to all those serving in the armed forces abroad, regardless of colour, creed, sex or sexuality, and their loved ones waiting for them to return home
NEVER LEAVE ME
In a fairytale wood,
dwarfed by leafy towers,
we planted seeds,
watched for flowers;
none did we see
that childlike summer
you promised me a love
to last forever
You went to war
(Iraq then Afghanistan);
I found another,
my heart a safer haven;
Broken promise,
a fairytale shot dead
for a soldier, kill or else
be killed...
One night I dreamed
I ran among ruined towers
where dragons roared,
giants trampling flowers;
What of our seeds?
I had to save them or try;
nature’s needs abandoned,
like love, will die?
Truth to learn,
nature leaving no choice
but to return…
listen out for its voice,
where leafy towers
like rousing sermons rise,
clouds rehearsing love songs
in lonely skies
All was much the same
(restored, glittering towers)
till you called my name
through late summer tears;
back to war you’ll go
yet never leave me, watching
love bloom, grow, anticipating
every homecoming
Copyright R. N. Taber 2010
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