somewhat lighter utterings...
Wink
Because I'll see you die first
I'll wear black lace with ruffled cuffs
I'll wink as they lower your remains
Toss a white rose in and seal it with spit
Mistaken you were to paint me weak
I am far tougher than you dare to be
Sigh as I sashay away, then ponder
Which tomorrow will be your dying day.
~ARCantu, 05/25/03
Provocative
Anger swirls
Frustration unfurls
Wisdom like pearls
Strung along
Subject to the snap of
Your fingers
On the pulse
Of my determination
~ARCantu, 03/31/03
*~~~~~*
Summer Vacation
Play me some Beale Street blues,
some Lightnin’ Hopkins,
some Howlin’ Wolf.
Show me Montana big skies,
rocky ledges expanding above
Bear’s Tooth road.
Feed me mudbugs and gator tail
at the faidodo in Baton Rouge.
Kiss me with Lady Liberty reflected in your eyes.
Hold me when wild Chi-town gusts
roar across Navy Pier.
I’d fly over oceans on a lark,
to see my dream of San Marco’s lion,
to trek Austrian hillocks
from whence my stock arose.
But bring me back to the Lone Star,
when autumn winds whisper again.
If you leave me, leave me
to the one place that has it all.
This is the only home for a Texas girl.
~ARCantu, 06/17/03
*~~~~~*
After All These Years
We imagined the magic hence passed
Thankfully we were mistaken
It lay dormant, unused, gathering character
Pure joy at last to hear true harmony
Wedded again, after what was accepted
As irreversible divorce, decades gone
Faltering briefly, for but a moment
Nervous, perhaps, after too long
Apart, while trying hard not to
Recall the other
Neither over-singing now
No vying, each controlled, softly
Sharing passion, soaring
Leave the limelight to urgent youth
Warm easy melding of memories
Honeyed tones stoking senses
From distant depths of somewhere
Kept glowing, ever close to our hearts
I missed you, without a clue how much
Until I heard you tonight
Coming Home.
~ARCantu, 09/12/03
(Tribute to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel,
together again, at last, and beautifully so.)
*~~~~~*
1997
Unnoticed memory
unleashed a deluge
uncivilized return
to primeval
Damn
broken
useless
trying to stop the flow
Raging, rushing, reaching
Words brushing against glimpses
temptation tantalizing
Like the first time
I noticed how
shirt unbuttoned
just enough
chest hair can be
so sexy
and men always
look hot in black
God I've missed
this well-worn ache
~Ann R. Cantu, 03/18/04
*~~~~~*
Beyond the Breakers
Apricot April Moon
Compels an irresistible dream...
Breasts, belly, thighs, wave-kissed
Rapt, enraptured, immersed
In the bluest blue
of You.
Filled, chilled to the point of searing
Dragged under, thirst lapping flesh
Gasping, drowning in need
Of what was never within reach.
You
Solitary
Impervious beacon
Upon distant sands
Keeping caution
Keeping passion
At bay.
~ARCantu, 04/07/2004
*~~~~~*
Anything Is
Shadow fire
Flickering along the rim
Licking outer realms
Of sensibility
Growling
Gnawing
Heart of shade
Fanned
Flaming
Looming
Assured
Impossibility
Gentle fingers
Stroke the mind
Faint
From deepest sleep
Vulnerable
Impressionable
Low fervent murmurs
Belie the import of this
Pre-waking
Predawn revelation
It is not a dream
The soul whispers
Anything is possible
~ARCantu, 03/15/003
*~~~~~*
Wildwood Ways
(a villanelle)
Weave the wildwood ways,
on wings of gypsy moths,
through forests misty gray,
to a mossy bed so soft.
On wings of gypsy moths,
fly down into the glade,
to a mossy bed so soft,
breathe woodland magic haze.
Fly down into the glade,
drink deeply nature's draught,
breathe woodland magic haze,
in dreams that life forgot.
Drink deeply nature's draught,
as enchantment ends the day,
in dreams that life forgot,
gentle slumber, mystic daze.
As enchantment ends the day,
through forests misty gray,
gentle slumber, mystic daze,
weave the wildwood ways.
~ARCantu, 06/20/00
*~~~~~*
Marlena, An Old Story
Marlena blew into town
like legendary leonine March winds.
Sensual seductress, the ultimate she -
stealing hearts of all men who saw,
and even some of the women.
Marlena was not beautiful
in any classical sense, but in modern
'give it to me right now' terminology,
she was the answer to fervent prayers.
The best of us knelt in idolatry.
Marlena was fluent in favors,
and in Spanish, and Italian and French.
It was the French that made me see red,
along with white hot and deepest blue.
She was speaking French when I shot her.
Marlena was a traitor,
treacherously free of meaningful alliances.
I was never jealous that she gave to others
as she gave to me - alms to the poor in spirit.
Yet when I saw her with my man in bed...
...I shot Marlena dead.
~ARCantu, 11/22/00
*~~~~~*
Against My Will
You take “Sympathy for the Devil”
to another level.
From a place close to Transylvania,
your distant cousins must be descended
from Vlad the Impaler.
Distrusting, disgusted, and disturbed,
my skin crawls at subtle suggestions
of your seduction.
Your evil is not sexual perversion
so much as a bent for human destruction.
A monster should appear discomfited,
yet you glide easily through polite society.
And I wonder how so many are charmed.
My blood ices at the sound
of your smart affable approach,
then warms, melts, boils,
against my will.
My flesh covets your mouth and
your fingers upon my throat.
In quiet dark
I long to surrender
to your will.
~ARCantu, 07/20/04
*~~~~~*
