POETRY JAM - THE UNEXPECTED

“Which death is preferable to every other? The unexpected.” - Julius Caesar

Poetry Jam this week is looking at the theme of “The Unexpected”. Writers who participate are invited to write “…a poem about the unexpected. This could be an unexpected visit, present or offer. You might want to write about an unexpected object, person, feeling or situation.” Here is my offering:

The Visitor

As I stretched my hand to grab the red balloons,
A visitor entered suddenly – and he was so unexpected…
I let the red balloons fly up to the sky, as he turned,
And I started as I glimpsed his awe-inspiring face.

He had unkempt, black, hair, his wet ringlets
Smelling of earth after the rain;
His green eyes were soft,
Like fresh, moistened moss;
His lips were red as if coloured by
Ripe red, pomegranate seeds;
His hands were white, with long fingers,
As he stretched them towards me.

Outside the rain kept falling,
While indoors there was darkness, silence,
An empty void.
I touched his proffered hand and was surprised
To feel his icy grip.
His arms locked around me
And his embrace was firm, inescapable,
Heavy, as if it were made of wet clay.

Now, he stoops and kisses me, tenderly like a father,
And his red lips freeze the life out of me;
While my last warm breath
Tries to melt the ice of his cold heart,
So that it warms with pity towards me.

Pitiless, he holds my hand and leads me
Out into the falling rain –
We don’t mind its liquid silver drops
And we go ever forward, to be lost,
Never to come back again.

Above the clouds where the sun always shines,
A thousand red balloons
Fly ever upward,
And so far away…