tatters and Other Poems

By RC deWinter

tatters

for all my years lived-in many universes 
of this many-colored world
i’m sometimes an innocent 
more than aware of evil
but often unable to comprehend its perpetration

i would no more slander someone 
than try to fly without wings
and being no angel surely have none
though my tongue wags loud and sharp
rough and mocking profane ironic
it’s never used for lies that ruin a life

yet calumny follows me
a felt but unseen shadow i can’t seem to shake
is it just deserts for unrelated sins forgotten
or the price one pays for hewing to one’s truth?

stargazing

some people sail across
the landscape of your life
shooting stars 
that catch you by surprise
and make you ooh and ah
simply by their brief bright brilliance

they always leave you
wanting more of that unexpected magic
that dazzled your world
like nothing else
and made you think that you too 
must be special

but just like shooting stars
they never stay
and in their going the sky is dark
and you are empty left to puzzle
was it something you did 
to cause their leaving

i've learned that no it's not
they have nothing more to give 
than a quick flash
your attention even briefly
is all they want or need
to fuel their endless journey

so now i pay no nevermind to shooting stars
having learned not to expect a reappearance
give me the steady light of some named star
steadfast 
always there 
always shining

elegy (last week into this)

what is it about a sunday night?

the shadows deeper
the silence louder
mortality's cloak heavy on the heart

such a certain finality

caught in the crossfire of advance and retreat
i tiptoe back and forth
wanting that dizzy rush
but afraid to upset this precarious applecart

would life be so precious 
if we knew we were immortal?

invisible clocks tick

i taste the bite of
time's cold and bitter wind

charmolypi

the loveplay
run   sweet conclusion
denied   left
with a lap
full of stars   each point a spur
reminding me of

what could and
should have been  but the
universe
reneged   the
promise exploded into
these shimmering bits

glowing here
   souvenirs of heart’s
desire   their
fire rivaled
only by the memory
of bright love shining

in your eyes
  now i’ll stitch these stars
into a
quilt to warm
the coming winter nights with
what remains of us

   and i will
sing the praise of what
together
was   each note
the echo of a star in 

your constellation

RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017),  Coffin Bell Two (Coffin Bell, 1/2019) The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press, 12/2021), in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, Genre Urban Arts, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Poetry South, Prairie Schooner, The Seventh Quarry Magazine, Southword, The Ogham Stone, Variant Literature, York Literary Review among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.