Magpie Tales 130: Illusion

conch


you were my 
desire. 

breaking free was 
your dilemma, but
one without a spirit

of deed, like a shell
in the sand.

"hold it to your ear," 
they say, "and you'll 
hear the ocean," and 

motherofpearl I did - 
felt your breath, 
tasted sea foam and
salt, swept along a 
rip-tide of cresting

waves that whetted
paradise and 
skin, 

striking echoes of 
hollow illusion and
emptiness. 





Poem © 2012 R. Burnett Baker 
Photo by Francesca Woodman, shared by Tess Kincaid.