IRON RAIN, SAPPHIRE SKIES

Though she would walk with me in the iron rain

I prefer the brilliance of sapphire skies

To take her hand and accompany her

Through the rambling wilderness of love.

And there I could promise her the world

And she would press her lips to mine

To hush me, lest I say things rashly

With my voice my heart cannot deliver.

She would smile and say, I know you love me

And that the love denied is no less

Alive for being wanting

And yet unrealized, still be real.

I would smile in reply, saying, yes, but

That does not still the beating of a fretful heart

Or quiet the yearning for the thunderstorms

Promised upon the parched soil of the wanting

Soul.   

The ensuing silence would be cloaked in violet;

The kisses shared beyond the towering trees

Would be velvet, and the love we make

Hotly scarlet against the bed of adoring earth.

I may not have her but for the moment

But I will share her then with no one

And she will be mine forever

Under sapphire skies, or in the iron rain

12/25/2002

Posted on 12/26/2002
Copyright © 2025 Ken Harnisch