The Conversation

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Teacher

There's still a magical circle I wish to find

Said the lonely old Preacher to his mentor 

Father Time 

As they both stood looking at history's many intersecting blue lines

It's a place where true love resides 

In a loop called Once in a Lifetime 

I read about it a thousand years ago 

Before I was recalled when my Golden Bell chimed

And to find it through all of lifes puzzles and paradigms 

I now know after opening so many old books

You have to truly encourage your heart and soul 

To embrace its magnetic flow 

And some say

You have to be willing to sacrifice everything and give up all self control

Sometimes O Father Time

When I look back over the thousands of years 

At my chance of 

Once in a Lifetime 

I can still remember I came so close and that in itself is a crime

For I too once knew a wonderful soul 

My own Red Rose of Jericho

She was so beautiful and as gentle as falling snow

But like all things that came to pass

I lost my way in the grip of the shadowy abyss

And never got to feel her sweet gentle touch or soft velvety kiss

But now I'm a part of you, O Father Time

And as I look back taking up your so very long reach

Using your supernatural telescopes 

To look at old hopes and dearly once loved folks 

I can still see her waiting, sitting there patiently reading

Fluctuating heartbroken throughout the many distinct time frequencies 

Streams

Thinking and dreaming about the one 

She so wanted to love and teach 

But who was suddenly snatched by death 

Beyond her reach

The book she's always holding and reading

When I zoom in 

Is a collection of her own poetic sad words linked together tragically 

In broken stories of her life of waiting  

Lost 

On the outer edges of a grey world

Regaling her only thought 

That I would arrive like a hero from the ether of time

And fill her life with magical moments of such soul-changing happiness and glory 

That so many people would be so surprised and beguiled 

But as I still see her from in here 

Hiding and crying at midnight 

Using your Scrying Mirrors

In this Dark Tower which connects all things and places

Lost in one of history's many bands of low resistance 

Awashed with new and old sinners

I still know that is the only place one day I pray I might reach 

When I have paid my dues to you 

And after going back through time 

As I appear out of the fluctuating ether and blue

To wipe away all her soft wet tears

Maybe then 

We can both be happy to clasp our 

Once in a Lifetime

To then walk upon the soft yellow sands

And smell the life-changing winds

Blowing across that circle's secret beaches 

And then in the realisation of that long lost dream

We may both just smile 

As we finally fade 

Into just being another part of your secret anthologies of love stories

For to find inner peace and divine glory  

To know what that real devotion can bring

You have to fight to reach it

For that's one of the many secrets to what true love is

(C)

Copyright  

John Duffy

No claim to image.