A poet's dictionary

A melisma in melody
is a long drawn out
flourish, sigh or exclamation;
a whole exhalation
of the soul.

Beauty is far
too chaste a term
to encompass lust;
too plain
to surround wonder;
too straight
to capture
the perfect proportions
of strangeness;
and yet it must.

Weird is me waking
at two in the morning
to write these words
in the darkness
so I'm not breaking
the pattern of your breathing:
ragged, shuddering, shaking
snores;
each one, a weird, melismatic beauty.

-------------------
(c) Yahya
19 October 2004
-------------------