Elegy To Calafia, Part 1
dear Calafia,
i saw you on the day you died
standing on that cliff with
fire in your hair, wind blowing it back
standing on that cliff with
not a care in the world with
the forest behind your back and the ocean
wide vast sparkling ultramarine
your arms were spread and your head turned up
and i thought i saw you smile at me before
you, with your golden eyes
and tangled scarlet locks
sun-kissed wood-brown skin,
stepped forward and plunged into the deep dark sea.
dear Calafia,
you left a whole world behind, full of
redwood forests on rugged mountains on
fruitful soil growing almonds and tangerines
and the call of the wolves, echoing everywhere
east of eden, this place you called paradise
paradise, with its wild coast, humming with
the booming calls of sea lions and
the chirps of birds circling far above in
the cloudless sky, and i must confess –
that i hated you for a moment there,
more than i had ever loved you because
you left us behind too.
dear Calafia,
don’t you remember how we
sat in a circle around the campfire
telling jokes and anecdotes, roasting marshmallows
as the forest came alive with its own nightlife
you said it was so different from the neon lights
and smog clouding the air, down in the city
you said you loved it here, you’d live out here
and your eyes met mine as you spoke, and
don’t you remember how we
stumbled down the curved road drunk on
our success at life and love, the streetlights blurred
and the moment teetering on a precipice
you said we’d live forever, our hands linked
as the world spun on around us.
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