Of You

By Bruce McRae

Thinking of you
is a bridge never crossed
and waters rising.

Thinking of you
is an obelisk in Arcadia.
A bird in a net.
A butterfly over an ocean.

My head hurts, like teeth hurt.
My head is a bowl of dust
or ball for kicking
or cold Monday morning.

In my brain is a museum
where I go when it's snowing.
It's a library closed
by the heart's eviction.

A thinking person
weighs every thought,
and thoughts of you weigh
seventeen point four five grammes.
The mind wanders
and I'm Nostradamus
and the future is unknown to us.
I'm a comedian
and our joke needs telling.

Thinking of you, because
I'm always looking for excuses
or odd emotion to taunt.
I'm building a ziggurat
made of potions and charms
and peopled with priestesses.
A temple graced by oracles.
My mind is abuzz
with the voice of insects,
the thought of you
a desert caravan and exult
of a thousand little gods.

My imagination is a box
I can't quite open.
Our book remains half-written.
Our new house
hasn't any windows or walls.

Thinking of you
it's always Christmas in Vienna.
Or we're strolling along
some boardwalk or forest path.
It's a warm summer's night
and we're lying on the lawn
while counting stars
and reshaping constellations.
For a thousand years
our love has been sleeping
within each other.

Thinking of you is a mountainous song.
Even when my mind is lost
I hear beautiful music.

Bruce McRae, a Canadian musician and multiple Pushcart nominee, has had work appear in hundreds of publications around the world. The winner of the 2020 Libretto Chapbook Prize (20 Sonnets), his books include ‘The So-Called Sonnets’; ‘An Unbecoming Fit Of Frenzy’; ‘Like As If’; ‘All Right Already’ and ‘Hearsay’.