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Elements

Etched upon the sky was I..

Corridors

Take your polluted air, tainted water
Embrace your filthy, cowardly spawn
Who roam like hounds the ravaged streets
Retrieve those angry, hateful pawns
Who prey relentlessly on their own
And leave the night, sweet and clean, to me

Recall the littered, tortured rivers
With a million poisoned lives
Find those cruelties which you allowed
And take them all from me
Retreat with the spoils you stole
And give me back the night
- 1988

Rainstorm

When the sky cries
An echo is heard
The circling mists seek
And long for comfort

When the sky cries
I weep for you
- 1997

Scribe

Because the words were there
Begging to be released
Needing to be exposed
To make the madness real
And put the passion in place
Where they could safely be recalled
Transforming scars to shields
- 2003

Magnitude

Emphatic, direct precision
You extended and reached me
Shattering a life of expectation

Powerful but restrained dexterity
You surrounded and enveloped me
Disturbing a soul long sleeping

Secret passion and velocity
Your magnitude overcame me
Swallowing my world whole
-1998

Autumn's Change

The autumn's change
Bring out the range
Of colors bright and bold
A dying flicker of gold...
But before the hue is dead
Out springs Indian red
A scarlet so serene
Overcome by olive green
When molten colors turn over
The time is now October
Orange speckles to the ground
With traces of hickory brown
Colors simple yet strange
Reflect the season's change
-1981

The Man of Stone

The wise one stands silent, forlorn
His face locked in memory of the past
His eyes thoughtful and in the stone worn
His shirt draping his chest like a mast
Tendons sturdy from walking miles
The blistered feet have felt many sands
His gaze reflects a faint smile
Perhaps in memory of other lands
A shame this soul will never talk
Only stone makes him live and last
Somewhere in the lands he stalked
He found the secret of the past
-1981

Birthday Roses

Bulbs caress the stems
With their fragrance

The miles will fade
And the years erase
As if nothing had changed
Your heart remains
- 2000

Icebergs

A weathered ancestor with faces new
Unaccustomed to the sounds of science
A stoic of the past, present, future
Nothing disturbs the deepening silence

As if indicative of unpredictable habits
A rumble erupts from below
Reminding the observer of mysteries
Which beckon to places forbidden
- 1985

Boundaries

Within your tranquil shores
A deep calm bestows your peace
Like a veil of leaves and canopy
Harboring creatures to your cheek

Your current rides with strength
And omniscience flowing force
Rolling unseen with waves
Channels cutting far below

Volume surges, then subsides
Maintaining momentum as you go
Rocks succumbing to your foam
Releasing the elusive to the sea
- 2003

Symmetry

In search of a balance
And structure only true
I sought a wholeness
And found solely you

What are the pieces
Of me falling apart
I lost so much of my soul
When you filled my heart
- 2004

Hollow

Perhaps as a measure of safety
Maybe the distance feels secure
Whatever the logic and reason
To an empty completeness I cling
- 2002

Intravenous

Shimmer

In the snow, we start over
The world is fresh and new
No traces of where we were
No memory of who was who

In morning light of wonder
All peaceful, silent, white
The darkness buried in ice
Its cry covered in quiet
- 2007

Sediment

And I will let you sink
Deeper, deeper into me
Channeling the depths
Navigating the chasms

Until you strike the core
And rest at the heart of me

There you will always lie
Becoming part of the sea
As sand gently washes over
Covering every facet of you

Disguising features and face
Until buried, you let me be
- Mary O. Fumento, 2007

Minutiae

I focused on things so small
Details others wouldn't find
But in my gaze they amplified
I cannot erase them from my mind

I memorized your face, your hair
The intricacies haunt me still
Your voice, touch, elusiveness
Remain with me and always will

I don't know how, when you did
I was unaware you cast a spell
But on the very shadow of you
My mind instinctively will dwell

In the essence of who you are
Regardless of location, time
You etched your being into me
Making the quite mundane sublime

You're forever, through and through
Tomorrow separates me like a knife
But your today ignighted my very soul
I feel your every breath of life
- Mary O. Fumento, 2007

Soliloquy

Silent was the voice
Booming in the head
Shattering all my hope
Filling me with dread
Screaming in self-denial
Shouting words of hate
Erasing all composure
Reducing me to fate
- Mary O. Fumento, 1999

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