Paramour

At long last
University releases him —
A brief hug, a story or two
Before the promise of night
Lures him away from the plentitude
Of a mother’s treasured home.

Off to carve a new experience
From the many wonders
The night may hold
While in vain, I search for sleep
Finding only stardust and muck.

I am but a stone
Rounding, flattening
Smoothing over time
As I skip my way
Through murky-clear waters of thought
Weaving ecstasy from the mundane
Darkness from the sublime
Poetry willfully shackling herself
To the place no one dare reside.

She is my prized shadow
Though not by mercy of sunlight
For the mere sake of telling time.
I chose her while seeking peace
I chose her while finding grime.

Commanding our tryst to survive
Under skies of splendor and angst
Together we weave a blanket of truth
From the miracle of light
And wretchedness of doom.

Words commanding my space
Taunting my sleep
Stealing me from motherhood
Trying to claim me as theirs to keep.

Relegated now to the banal
Activities of my youth
Experiences that once seduced
Inching me ever closer to her
My lover and muse
She, the one who craves to enslave me
Perhaps for future use.

Like an octopus
She flails her tentacles to and fro
Hoping to persuade, to sing, to float.
Most eagerly I surrender
To her sweeping embrace
Entranced by her three hearts
An addiction, some might say.

But we concede in symbiotic measure
My paramour and I
Like a cherished family recipe
Which, unwritten, survives
By virtue of the passion
With which it is passed on.

The dark of night retreats
In deference to a new dawn
Signaling the time has come
For our odyssey to unplug
As my husband leans in for a kiss
And son for his morning hug.

Photo by Alina de Albergaria
Breckenridge, Colorado, 2021
© pennedbyalina