Saturday, August 2, 2014

The Handshake

I see you smile
But the smile is not in your eyes
The clasp of your hand cold and clammy
Your gaze distant and dreary
And your eyes! Cold, dead, unfeeling unseeing
Like the eyes of a fish
Your dimples
Once dinky delight of many onyxes past
Like the puckered sulk of citrus sucked dry
O! Sombre sojourner
Where has your journey been?
What miserable fortune has been your lot
That your visage so grievously be?
A deathly mask you wear
Of dashed hopes and dreams lost
Of funeral pyres and loves lost
Of great waves crashing but upon treacherous beaches
Totems of forlorn travels borne on your countenance
Like tear-soaked medals unloved, unwanted
Life must go on alas you say
Your hand wet and clammy
Reached out like grimly wooden visors
Your ivory set white yet gritty
Testy founts of sass, impertinent scissors
Offers of lachrymose they are
Yes, I see you smile

But the smile is not in your eyes 

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