Clean Water
For a while
I looked straight
Into clean water
Its surface pleased me
Being so smooth like glass
And in its clear depths
I saw stones of many colours
Strewn across its bed
These pebbles pleased my eye
With their roundness and solemnity
All memory of you
Was gone
And I was happy looking
Into what could be
My only way of going on
To be serene and placid
Hope ringing cleanly in my head
Like any bell
But as I looked
Your reflection formed
At my shoulder
And looking down
Was looking up
At you staring back
Your reflection growing strong
And now my pool was
Brown and murky
All my stones had gone
The ruffled surface of the
Water chopped my eyes
And my bell distilled
The ringing sound a dull
Clang
You dismayed me
By your coming
And without my glassy water
And my pebbles to delight my
Eye with their reds and pinks
And their round solemnity
I am lost.
I cannot glide on choppy waters
Or dip my hand in mud
And I am scared to turn around
Incase you really
Are there
At my back
Your hand waiting patiently
To stroke my hair.
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