ACROSS THE OCEANS II (ISSUE 7)
Three Poems by Lynn White
CANDLES
How many candles must I light
to commemorate all the dead souls,
all the lives wasted in wars without end.
So many that candle making has become
a profitable industry.
The more deaths,
the more candles.
Will there be anyone left
to light a candle for me?
…………………………….
NIGHTFALL
It’s that time when
Day closes,
down,
shuts up shop
draws down the blinds,
so that Night can fall
down.
And it does,
every day,
shutting out the light
until
day breaks
and the sun shines
through
rising up
through the dark,
only
waiting for Night
to drag it down
again.
……………………………….
SKULL
The skull lies desolate
on the bare mountain side.
Just lies there among the rocks.
Lies still with a few accompanying bones.
Each day it decays as wind and rain weather it
and destroys its form and substance so that it wastes
away and fades into the landscape and decays.
If it had come to rest lower down the mountain
it would have sunk into the boggy peat moss
and risen with hair and hide intact with,
the cause of death discernible, with
its last meal of grass or rabbit
still there inside its stomach.
Preserved by nature.
Preserved or wasted.
It all depends on
where you
fall.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. Her poem ‘A Rose For Gaza’ was shortlisted for the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ Competition 2014. This and many other poems, have been widely published, in recent anthologies such as – ‘Alice In Wonderland’ by Silver Birch Press, ‘The Border Crossed Us’ from Vagabond Press and ‘Selfhood’ from Trancendence Zero – and journals such as Apogee, Firewords Quarterly, Guide To Kulchur, Indie Soleil, Midnight Circus and Snapdragon as well as many other online and print publications.