Shadow of a Name
One thousand trees
Wave from the dark of the woods
Next to the straw cottage,
Dark shadows beneath a starry sky.
My name, Cherisse,
My name is nothing but a shadow,
Your hair is but a spider’s web
Waving in the wind―
The wind and the trees
Dance in the darkness of the woods,
Shaking leaves into a yellow rainstorm,
A yellow river bends past the straw cottage.
My name, Cherisse,
My laugh is nothing but a shadow,
Your smile nothing but dust and ashes
Smoldering in the fire―
The fire chases the trees
From their dark hiding place.
Seven hundred flickering torches
Lick the air,
Dancing shadows on the grass,
A black river runs past the straw cottage.
My name, Cherisse,
My eyes are nothing but dark shadows,
Your heartbeat an echo
That bends past the straw cottage,
Reaching no one―
The stars burn cream and milk,
Undisturbed in their shadowy woods.
They mean nothing, really,
They don’t breathe, or sing, or love you,
Like I do,
They dance like nymphs in their dark forests
Above the straw cottage.
My name, Cherisse,
My thoughts are but dark matter,
Your voice a ripple in a lake,
Quivering, then still.
Sixty-two shadows,
Craters of a green and yellowed moon,
The spider’s web glistens from the fire above the doorway
Of the straw cottage―
The names of the trees, Cherisse, nothing but shadows,
Who knows what our names might have meant
Before becoming ash and dust
Fleeing from the straw cottage,
Leaving nothing but a forest of shadows―
And the stars dance above the ashes of the straw cottage,
And the stars dance like nymphs in their black forest,
And the stars blaze like laughing fire,
And their names burn on.