“It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” (Noël Coward)
The Last Flight – by Samm Short
I give you my blue stone
that I found
– in a desert –
– in a river –
I give you river stone
on a ribbon
that I ask you to wear
at the base of your throat,
where the fifth chakra sits
in that neat little hollow
none of us can name –
Apart from the count
who was really a spy
(I could tell you
never quite knew)
who wanted to own
that piece of skin the size of a small
thumbprint, where if you
press too hard
everything goes dark.
Did he think that if he
owned it
the way men name
sands and lay claim to the stones
he would also
own you?
But we are all so professionally adept at lying.
I place the ribbon round your
neck and
start the propeller
and wonder
whose truth you will tell me today.
I really like this poem – think it works very well and am wondering if the second image is a print of the first although the shape in the middle is slightly different.