gone for good this time
that's how the saying goes
eventually there is a silence
eventually there is no reply
and it ends
it dies
and those who are wise
let it die
you can't breathe life into the dead
no sooner than get blood from a stone
and you have to let them leave you
then go on freely
as you always have
you will survive
you will be stronger
you will live
longer
better
happier
freer
saner
safer
alone
by yourself
at the farm
like a hermit
like a nun
a recluse
an old maid
and yet
it will be peaceful
no one to answer to
or defend yourself to
claim your space to
or fight for your freedom
no one to love at night
no one to help
or share the land
all it was
was fantasy
a dream
a hope
a wish
that blew away
when he went away
and how sad one's happiness
relies on a "him" at all

Katherine Bandiera
Mar.26.06

love never makes sense
suppose it's not supposed to
another man says good bye
they all find fault with me in the end
mom will say "wasn't meant to be"
no matter how i try
they all disappear
i'll go off and lick my wounds for awhile
this time i won't despair and
get depressed
i say
though i feel it coming already
that big wall
that falls
into a big crevice
where i'll hide
for a while
amongst the old memories
of despair
and defeat
all lost loves hide there
in the mortar
of those walls that
hold me

Katherine Bandiera
March 21, 2006

Viamus mea Claudia - Gaius Valarius Catallus (84 - 54 BC), Verona

translation: Ewan Whyte
Catallus: Lyric, Rude & Erotic
c. - 2004, Mosaic Press

Let us live and love
not listening to old men's talk
Suns will rise and set
long after our little light dies
gone away to darkness

Kiss me again and again
Let me kiss you a hundred times
a thousand more, again one thousand
without rest, losing count
so no one can speak of us and say
they know the number of our kisses

as seen in TTC posters, Toronto, ON Canada March 2006

Smell of Rain

earthy smells
of rainy feel
crown my head
in coming rain

skies darken
close around
with raindrops
guised as tears


now

hushed
quiet
calm

city streets
washed clean
in earthy smells
of rainy feel


Katherine Bandiera
March 08, 2006

Ethelwyn Wetheral - Frost
(1857 - 1940) Rockwood, On

FROST

When the sun is growing weaker,
and his look is meek and meeker
Comes the frost - the pale betrayer,
Light of foot a stealthy slayer.

In the night abroad he stealeth
for each trembling leaf he feelth
Something softening its pleading
kills it not but leaves it bleeding.

TTC - Toronto, ON March 2006 east,west, north and southbound trains