The Poet

O poet!/ Writing
Of lost love 
Why sigh and moan
Why obsess so 
Objectifying
Devaluing
Something - someone you 
Claimed to love 

O poet! Don't
Speak of lost flowers/
Of light or grace or laughter/ 
Of all the precious stones 
Of the world/ Don't speak 
Tonight/ of white robed ladies 
In ivory towers 

O poet! 
Each person their own
Master or mistress/ Riding 
White chargers into their own
Destinies/ O poet!
How dare we speak up
You and I/ For we have 
Nothing 
To do here with this
No one
To lend a ear 

O poet!/ Why?
Why did you lose your love?
Was it you?/ Was it them?
Was it cruel circumstance?
Honour and duty/ Parents' insanity
A Scottish poem dying 
In a tragic storm

O poet!/ Don't you see
'Tis madness to hold
Onto these/ Memories of a rain-
Drenched stroll/ Of kisses
Never stolen/ Of loves lost 
Before they began/ Of past selves 
Discarded and forgotten 

O poet!/ I seek to write 
A tombstone for my love long lost 
A death mask for a memory
A paean to a ghost living on 
In just my thoughts/ My sullen silence 
Missing words make up a poem 
To honour the fallen/
And the ones that never fought