Ascend to Descend

Step each step, lightly on toes, lift yourself, my love.

If needs must, clip your wings within the narrow stairway.

Do not feign the winding flight but climb above

To meet me at the threshold with a kiss and say,

“I’ve come to your dream house, in from the uncalm,

To couch you again within a deep bosomed soul

Like some ghosts of old that wrap in ethereal arms."

Whisper this, come in, and I will do as I am told.

Wingless, it is easier to pass. Come through withal.

Let hands brush the dust on all my trinkets and pretty things,

Catch quick sight of oriental prints that cover the walls.

Let’s sit side by side and gaze and talk. Love clings,

For in your eyes I see you want to kiss again.

I can tell by the shine through the dusty glint,

We will do this and much more. This must be when

Each eyelid pulls passion down like a swimmer that sinks

And takes another with them. But, first!  Lift your view

One moment more. See the painted picture hanging there?

The one upon the wall suspended askew?

Catch it now. The lady descending a bamboo stair

As her lover stays, kimono robed, with a rose lapel.

Her geta slippers click with each sad step as she goes,

The man, holding back, knows these passions well,

As she ticks off time with each touch of her toes.

The rose with each petaled form will wither and die.

No mark will be left but the trace of a memory.

We then fight to trust through the eye of the mind

And are left to question if what we feel we see

Is felt. So a kiss, my love, once more. A stamp of

Remembrance before you descend. Go below

But, before you do, also leave a vestige of love.

Collect all the feathers of your wings as you go.