Lavender Love
Poetry Series by Jaxon Goddard-Westland, photo by Jack Evans
This tongue of mine
I know I can’t talk so will you at least listen;
I know I can’t talk so I watch your lips glisten;
But this tongue in my mouth,
Palate, field, of my crops;
Saboteur of my buds and blooms.
I am the visionary;
Time folds as I move through it;
And left in my wake are stories.
I know I can’t talk for I have bitten my tongue;
I know I can’t talk potent feelings unsung;
But this blood in my mouth,
Sanguine sign of desire;
Amorous froth, dribbles and leaks.
As I look in the mirror at this hole in my face;
Where a hazy dusk resides;
A palpitating sunset;
Of purple coloured skies.
Moving up from my heart, throat, mouth;
Sitting on my tongue;
climbing up my mind;
Loves tinctured lavender hues,
I see behind my eyes.
Past, present, future;
My love wants me askew;
I can try to deny this lusty ardor;
Or take in this lavender hue.
Colour Green - After Walt Whitman
Dear. Oh Dear. Colour me green and lie me in a field;
Colour me, rigid and prone, eyes shut, sealed;
Plant me lavender fields waves and rows—Plant me a grave shrouded;
Plant me in the ground, a covered mound, the space around me crowded;
Oh dear. my love.
Feel my cold embrace;
A sorrow stood upright,
broken and debased.
For under this packed terrain, a man shaped hole exists;
I walk a green in carnation, as I dream about our tryst;
The field’s been plucked and pruned, the flowers sprouted and bloomed;
A sombre night, the festering blight, beauty knows it’s doomed;
Hush purple beauty, hush purple sea.
If I don’t make haste;
This lavender streak shall wither,
And rot there broken and debased.
Juniper Blue
Juniper blue, has an unrelenting saturation;
The kind that wisps your vision,
And turns grimy rags into molotovs;
It coats my throat;
Drys my mouth;
Bites my lip;
And then begins to talk without direction;
I try to wash down this sharp liquid, juniper blue;
But it swells up, up in my throat;
Swallow it
Swallow the sweet tonic, juniper blue;
Swallow it. before quinine turns to bitter ends,
And you are left seeing colours again;
Juniper blue, old friend.
