family

Callum Featherstone

Once, by the Mountainside

In Tibet, where a lonesome shepherd
held aloft his pointed staff of hope.

* Once, by the mountainside.

And, wished for a family
upon Heaven’s pedigree

unto — a flock of stars.

Once, with regret, within the jebel was a leopard
that from tangled tusks on antelope
was paint expansively
with dusky, camouflaging scars.

A wooden cudgel,
rod, shillelagh
carved with a galaxy’s belief.

Can prove enough
protection ably
to break a mountain leopard’s teeth.

Once, by the mountainside.

For, while the herdsman’s
back was turned
through the bushes
crop did creep.

That mountain leopard’s
hunger spurred
on by rustling
starry sights of sheep.

As the cosh, it clubbed and clanged
a panther’s chime, soon mute
rang out with spirit’s rise.

Once, by the mountainside.

A proud and deadly beast, defanged
round a neck, was loot
for havoc’s hollow prize.

Now, protected sheep, they graze.
Their herd it crowds and multiplies.
Like shadow-puppet-strings
cast o’er scornful campfires burn
tell of his legend — solitary.

Whence a brood’s lives were stole
belonging to the pard.

Where twin infant panthers gazed
with empty mouths and eyes.
Reflects a Shepherd’s wish
as it is mournfully returned:

** ” རི་འདབས་ལ་གྱེས། ” ;

heard, wistful Heaven’s pedigree.

Embarked this leopard family
dwindled but for their souls.
Once, unto — a flock of stars.

© poormansdreams

* Snow/mountain leopard:
Panthera uncia (previously: Uncia uncia)
The genus name, Uncia, is derived from the Old French word :- once, which was originally used for the European lynx.

** Modern Lhasa Tibetan translation:
“Goodbye to the mountainside.”
རི་འདབས་ལ་གྱེས།
ri ’dabs la gyes
IPA: [ɾì tɛ̀p̚ la cʰé]

Callum Featherstone

Love’s perilous shallows

Those sunken…

relationships,
cause wrecks,
when love is perilously shallow.
Reluctant and scorned, the captains,
dive into their slippery,
ill-gotten, untitled, reckonings.

A backpedalling pool,
of thick, cementing gruel,
turning stomachs,
into, trodden, broken,
ceramics,
and, once, placid waters,
into, viscous, panics.

“King Cnut was awash,
with humility, and, a gut-wrenching knot, in his defeat, to the seas,
and, deemed them; majestic,
Godly, and, hallowed.
For, he knew, then, that his reign,
could not stop, the rains of April,
nor, reverse the ocean tides,
despite his courtiers’ love,
being perilously shallow.”

The salty waves,
of harpoon-shaped tears,
submit to sandy cheeks of forlorn,
creating crestfallen beach tides.
Memories resurface; embittered,
and, resentful,
as, sodden spite, is beckoning.

Frostbitten, arctic remarks,
chisel those, once, bleeding hearts,
into cold, scuppered; currachs.
Punctured, and, capsized,
from, ice-veined, blue-blood, it freezes, and, attacks;
subverting, and, destroying the voyage; of doomed solicitude;
when love is perilously shallow.