But Sometimes Rising

Samantha French

But Sometimes Rising

when I close my eyes

a deep ocean swells to drown

the dry shapes of day

but sometimes rising

in the waters of my mind

flesh faces waver

into clarity -

tantalizing cameos

like quicksilver fish

that gleam and vanish

as the current twists and shifts,

or mermaids groping

from the wrong side of

time's translucent element

for what might have been

Fred Cogswell

"When I close my eyes"... Isn't it true? Isn't there a submerged world in our heads? A place of mystery and beauty, flashes of possibility - depths of aching darkness and shafts of startling light. A place where time shifts forward and back, where people and places long gone suddenly come into sharp focus. It's another element, not reality and yet as real and close as anything we know.