May 2004  

Ghazal of Silver    © by    Roger Pao
 

How many statues persist on the precipice
of where we kissed, where no silver

emptied for an entirety of love, where
no elegy had room to blossom silver

by the wayside of loss? So few.
Much as I hate to say, it was not silver

that swooned on the lake near the city
where dulcet echoes of the Silver

Isotopes loomed from an amphitheater
we never raved in. Your silver

hair has quieted down, and now looping
a ponytail, I know it was not silver,

not the lucidity of jewelry, that moved
you enough to toss your silver

laughter miles beyond my reach.
How youthful our coast still seems! Silver

was the element we touched together.
It overflowed, and the silver

lid would not screw back on, and our
hands let go under honeyed silver.

Previously published in the North Carolina Poetry Society's
Pinesong: Awards 2003. Used with the poet's permission.
NOTICE: The poem on this page is copyright © by the poet.