Leaves coo n’ crunch
Padding down a path in winding wood
Wooed by thoughts of you
As I fall for you
In your favorite season of the year
Gold, amber, ruby and tiger’s eye brown
Jewel down sapphire’s sky
Tapping my shoulder
Each time I turn around
Wishing for the touch of your hand
Under swaying cathedral branches
Where sturdy Oaks arch and pray
Willows weep
Wild in peace
A virgin princess wanna’be crowned
I go to the pond to catch a glimpse
Of the water portrait of my prince
Green is the frog
Fresh as ever is my longing
Passion screams silence
I kneel and kiss
Your reflecting wet lips
Smack!
Disappearing with the ripples
I protest
Sticking out my tongue
I look for you in eyes of moose and deer
But you are no where near
Their stares deep pupil pits
I am swallowed whole by their holes
Onyx abyss
Sliding away I echo-rant
“You are gone-gone-gone!”
A water lily sinks
A cricket’s chant cut short
I thud on mud
Stumbling to get back up
Throwing stones
Hard on soft water
Comforting me —
I wade knee high in algae
Until my skin below albinos pale chartreuse
And wiggling toes shrivel prune
Thus the end’s beginning of our unrequited aging love?
Another fairy tale as old as time
Alone
Counting rings on a-muse’s stump…
He loves me?
He loves me not.
I have to love you less
All because I love you more
A spell cast
Inverted sand spirals up the hourglass
Flies still fly
Buzz, buzz.
Lisa Dolensky received second place creative nonfiction and editorial awards at the 2008 Southern Christian Writers Conference. Her inspirational writing has appeared in Tyndale House’s compilation Life Savors For Women and national magazines. She’s a first generation University of Alabama graduate and prekindergarten teacher. Image: Illustration from Anne Anderson’s Old, Old Fairy Tales, Anne Anderson. 1935